'The whole world needs people like Howard': Omaha businessman Howard Hawks left a lasting impression

Dec. 20, 2024, 6 a.m. ·

Nellie's Wedding Day
Nellie Beyan-Olabige has known Howard Hawks (right) since 2000. "The whole world needs people like Howard," she said. (Photo courtesy Nellie Beyan-Olabige)

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Omaha businessman and Nebraska Regent Howard Hawks died on Dec. 6. He co-founded one of the largest energy companies in the country, Tenaska, and was a University of Nebraska Regent for 18 years.

But Nellie Beyan-Olabige knows him for a different reason.

She initially visited the United States in 1998. She was a camp counselor for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. She had to return to her home country of Liberia in West Africa but was looking for any opportunity to return to the states.

Beyan-Olabige found an international volunteer opening with the Lutheran Service Corps in Omaha. But this time she didn’t have the funding to buy a plane ticket. That’s when the Hawks family stepped in.

“My bishop at the time…called me and said, Nellie, can you come over to my office?’ I said, of course, bishop,'” Beyan-Olabige said. “So I went over and he handed me this email.”

That email said that Howard and his first wife Myrna would pay for everything – the plane ticket, her visa and even some extra spending money.

“Who is this man? Who is his wife? They have never met me. They have never seen me,” she said. “This is shocking. How would they send for a complete stranger?”

Beyan-Olabige said the Hawks’ support didn’t stop there. While she was working as an international volunteer, she was thinking about completing her college degree. She was worried about paying for it, though.

“I kept thinking about Howard and Myrna,” she said. “But I was very embarrassed. I was very ashamed. I was very doubtful, because they have already done their best. They brought me into this country, and what more can they do?”

When the Hawks family found out, Beyan-Olabige said they didn’t hesitate to pay for her education.

“Myrna told me something that had never left my mind after all these years,” Beyan-Olabige said with tears in her eyes. “She took my hand and said, ‘Nellie, do not be afraid. We are with you in this. Just let us know what college you want to go to.’ Can you believe that? Can you imagine?”

The family once again paid for everything – her education costs, her living costs, whatever she needed. Beyan-Olabige chose to attend the University of Nebraka-Omaha, where she earned her undergraduate and graduate degree free of charge because of the Hawks family.

“Howard did not just change me as an individual, but he changed the entire country of Liberia,” she said. “There's an African proverb that says, ‘If you educate a woman, you educate the nation.’ And that's what he did.”

Beyan-Olabige said the Hawks family – including Howard, his late wife Myrna and his current wife Rhonda – are all examples of how people should treat others.

“What these people, including Howard, have shown the world is that kindness is not limited to a particular race. Kindness is not limited to one country,” Beyan-Olabige said. “The whole world needs people like Howard.”

She said what Howard and the entire Hawks family gave her was a miracle.