Newspaper Article 2007 – US honoured Bay man for service in war, peace

US honoured Bay man for service in war, peace

HAWTHORNE MILLS
1929-2007

Obituary

A man who served the US in both war and peacetime, and who received awards for both, has died at his Havelock North home.

Hawthorne “Hawk” Mills was 78.

He and his wife, Diana, who grew up in Hawke’s Bay, moved to the region in 2002 so they could be closer to family, friends and medical facilities.

Mr Mills had been diagnosed with bone cancer.

His public service career spanned the years from 1945, when he was a young sailor serving in the Pacific, through the years of the Cold War, and up until 1990, when he served as an international peacekeeping official with the Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai. The team helped enforce the security provisions of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty.

A graduate of the National War College, Mr Hawk, during his 36-year career, served in a string of high-profile posts.

He was chief of mission in Afghanistan during the first two years of Soviet occupation, deputy chief of mission and charge d’affaires in Athens and consul general in Amsterdam between 1974 and 1976.

Mr Mills also worked in Vietnam, The Hague, Salzburg and Washington in a distinguished foreign service career.

As well as receiving two Senior Foreign Service awards, Mr Mills was also awarded the State Department’s Award for Heroism, Superior Honour Award, and the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

In 2004 Mr Mills published his autobiography titled The Time of My Life.

The American Foreign Service Journal described his book as “candid and trenchant, and sometimes at odds with conventional wisdom, this book is never boring.”

Mr Mills was awarded the State Department’s Award for Heroism, Superior Honour Award, and the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

Mr Mills had said his two objectives in writing the book were to record the events of his life for his children and grandchildren, as well as record his own impressions of an era in which he was a participant and observer in many pivotal international events.

After retiring in 1990 he and his wife spent 12 years living on an island sheep farm in the Bay of Islands, but spent the northern summers cruising the inland waterways of Europe aboard their French canal boat.

They also spent time visiting their four children and six grandchildren who live in different parts of the world.