Former Tuskegee Airman Lived Long Life Of Inspiration

By MARK ZALOUDEK Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: May 2, 2007

MANATEE COUNTY - Despite years of facing discrimination in his military uniform and his civilian clothes, former Tuskegee Airman Louis G. Hill Jr. refused to be bitter.

Instead, Hill - the grandson of a Civil War-era slave - tried to show society by his example that he and other black people deserve to be treated as equals.

In talks he gave to youths and civic groups across the country, Hill, a retired high school teacher with two master's degrees, delivered a message of inspiration that others, too, can overcome obstacles through education and hard work.

"He was born to be a teacher. He felt the only way to deal with injustice is to show people by his example how wrong they are in their thinking," said his wife, Vilma Webber Hill.

Hill, who along with other black pilots was honored for distinguished service in World War II, died April 25 of complications from a stroke in January. He was 90.

"He worked against adversity, and he never let it get him down," said a friend, John Colòn of University Park. "He was an example to all of his students and to all of the people he met. He felt the most important thing is to move forward and for each generation to do better than the one before."

Born June 28, 1916, in Indianapolis, Hill grew up in an era of segregated schools, racial discrimination and random violence against minorities by the Ku Klux Klan.

Academically gifted, he graduated from high school at age 15 and enrolled in the University of California, Los Angeles, with thoughts of becoming a teacher.

After college, he worked briefly selling insurance in California before he signed up for military service in 1940 as the war escalated in Europe. Upon graduating from the Army Air Corps' Officer Candidate School in Virginia, where he met his first wife, Hill arrived at Tuskegee Institute as a second lieutenant.

He graduated from flight training school in 1944 as a B-25 bomber pilot and had begun training other pilots at an air base in California when the war came to an abrupt halt in 1945 with the use of atomic bombs on Japan.

Hill returned to Indianapolis after the war and applied for a job as a high school teacher. Since he didn't have a suit for the interview, he wore his military uniform.

"The principal told him, 'What are you doing impersonating an officer?'" Vilma Hill said.

"Even after Louis explained that it was his uniform, the principal said, 'I don't believe you.'"

While teaching in Indianapolis public schools, he earned master's degrees in science and English shortly after the war.

In 2006, Hill received an honorary doctorate in public service from Tuskegee University for his career as an educator.

In March, President Bush invited the Tuskegee Airmen to the Capitol to present them with the Congressional Gold Medal for their patriotic service. Vilma Hill represented her husband, who was recuperating from his stroke.

She said her husband was treated like a celebrity in Sarasota Memorial Hospital's rehabilitation unit when hospital workers saw his medal.

"Louis always prided himself on his accomplishments, and when he heard he was going to be awarded this honor, he said to me that it took them 60 years to recognize that we were human beings who were educated, trained and capable to do what the white pilots did," his wife said.

Hill's first wife died in 1989. He remarried after moving to West Central Florida nearly three years ago.

He was active in retirement and was a skilled bridge player until his recent illness.

In addition to his second wife, Hill is survived by two daughters, Aletha Wrenn and Daria Neal, both of Indianapolis; stepson Rodney Hale of Sarasota; stepdaughter Camille Thornhill of Long Island, N.Y.; five grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.

A memorial service will be at 10 a.m. May 10 at St. Wilfred Episcopal Church in Sarasota.

His ashes will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.