Walter L. Hill, 87, of Springfield died Thursday, January 10, 2013, at Duke Hospital in Durham, North Carolina.
He was born August 24, 1925, in Clear Lake, Iowa, the son of Fred and Ethel Hill. He married Virginia Roskens in 1949 in Lennox, South Dakota.
Col. Hill, a WWII veteran, was wounded in action near Krefeld, Germany, in 1944. He later served for three decades in the Army Reserve, including work at the Pentagon, the Command and General Staff College and with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Hill retired in 1987 as Executive Director of the Springfield Y.M.C.A., whose programs and facilities greatly expanded and whose membership and income tripled under his leadership.
He was an active member of the First United Methodist Church, Rotary International (honored as a Paul Harris Fellow), Island Bay Yacht Club, and the board of directors of the Midwest Mission Distribution Center. With his wife, Virginia, he led 23 mission trips within the U.S. and to Haiti and Russia. They also traveled for pleasure, including tours of South America, Africa, Europe and the Orient.
Hill is preceded in death by his wife of 57 years, Virginia, and brothers Donald and Robert and sisters Mary and Elsie. He is survived by three children, Susan Shanbaum (husband, Robert), Todd Hill (wife, Annie), and Craig Hill (wife, Robin), and by seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Throughout his life, Walter Hill sacrificed for others, as a soldier for his country, as a leader in his community, as a servant to the less fortunate, and as a devoted husband and father. He will be missed but not forgotten by the many persons in whom his example lives on.
A funeral service will be held at 2:00pm on Sunday January 20, 2013 at the First United Methodist Church, 2941 Koke Mill Road with Dr. Roger Ross and Dr. Bob Swickard officiating. The family will meet friends from 2-4:00pm Saturday at Bisch Funeral Home West, 2931 Koke Mill Road. Private burial will take place at Camp Butler National Cemetery and in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to "The Endowment Fund" at the Midwest Mission Distribution Center, Chatham, IL. Please visit the online "Life Remembered Story" at www.bischfuneralhomewest.com.