of Little Rock, AR

February 29, 1936 - August 5, 2025

Charles Edward Hathaway Ill, age 89, died on Tuesday, August 5, 2025. He was born in Corpus Christi, Texas on February 29, 1936 to Lois LaRue Jenkins Hathaway and Charles Edward Hathaway, Jr. He spent most of his formative childhood in Laredo, Texas. He graduated from Texas A & M with a BS in Physics and participated in research at the Naval Ordinance Test Station in China Lake, California before attending the University of Oklahoma as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, graduating with a PhD in Physics in 1965. He then joined the Department of Physics at Kansas State University as an Assistant Professor, publishing his research in Solid State Physics in the Journal of the American Physical Society. He became Head of that department in 1971.

He was appointed Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics at the University of Texas in San Antonio in 1981 where he played a role in starting the engineering program and changing the name of the college to the College of Science and Engineering. The Society of Professional Engineers of Texas made him an Honorary Professional Engineer at this time.

In 1986 he accepted the position of Vice President for Academic Affairs at Wright State University to work with his long-time friend, President Paige E. Mulhollan. During this collaboration the university made significant advances in graduate education, external research funding and initiated the College of Engineering and Computer Sciences as a free-standing college. Of all the many new programs that he initiated he was particularly proud of the Wright STEP Program, which selected minority high school students to assist them in preparing for significant careers in science, engineering, technology and mathematics (STEM). Any student who successfully finished four summers in the program received a 4 year scholarship to Wright State University. The program received an award from President George Bush and continues today, having graduated hundreds of minorities into STEM careers.

He was appointed Chancellor of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1993. During his tenure at UALR he served on the Board of Directors of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and received an award for advancing the careers of women in universities. At UALR he advanced the mission of the university to acknowledge its role in the growth of the larger Little Rock community, enabling faculty to create new links between the university and the city. Of the many advances that UALR made during his tenure he was particularly pleased to nurture the Children International Program under the guidance of Dr. Cheryl Chapman and the creation of the College of Engineering and Information Technology, with a full range of undergraduate and graduate degrees with the collaboration of Dr. Mary Lowe Good. He also greatly appreciated the strides the university made in increasing the minority enrollment under the guidance of Dr. Charles Donaldson.

After ten years as Chancellor, he stepped down and created and taught a course in the Department of History on the historical development of technology and also taught a course of Algebra for the College of Mathematics. He was content to come full circle and return to the faculty of the academy he so much appreciated.

Charles always had a positive, optimistic spirit which assured that his glass was always at least half full and he felt most fortunate to have had a career and a hobby that were one and the same, as was pointed out to him by his brother. He relished the learning process, which he pursued always. He truly enjoyed people and took great pleasure in seeing others succeed. His life was an ongoing celebration of life.

Charles is survived by his much beloved wife and partner of 48 years, Betty Hathaway of Little Rock; by his brother, Sydney Gene Hathaway and wife, Ann of North Carolina; by his son, Steven Edward Hathaway and wife, Melinda of Wilmington, Ohio; by his son, Eric Charles Hathaway and wife, Lisa of Willowick, Ohio and by his step-daughter, Sarah Thompson and her husband, Jeffrey Anderson of Seattle.

There will be no public funeral. If anyone wishes to make a gift in Charles' memory, he wished for such gifts to made to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock or to a worthy cause important to the donor.

Obituary Provided By:
Roller-Chenal Funeral Home
13801 Chenal Parkway
Little Rock, AR  72211
www.rollerfuneralhomes.com