A. Rudolph Hill
March 24, 1926 - May 30, 2011
Lived his values of honesty, clean living, & hard work
A. Rudolph (Rudy) Hill was born March 24, 1926 in Brooklyn, NY. His parents, both born on the island of Barbados in the then British West Indies, met and married after coming to the United States. Rudy and his brother Dennis grew up in Brooklyn, attending elementary, junior high and high school. Rudy was a good student, and enjoyed school sports including baseball, basketball, soccer, and track. He played basketball from ages 7 through 21. He even tried fencing for a short time; it was one of the sports provided by Boys High School, from which he graduated in 1944.
Rudy also was a musician. He studied piano for 11 years, the last four at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. His father and brother, Dennis, played both the clarinet and the saxophone. From 1943 until June 1945, Rudy worked for the General Post Office at 33rd Street and 8th Avenue in Manhattan. From September 1947 until June 1948, Rudy was employed at Luban’s Liquors, at Nostrand and Gates in Brooklyn.
Rudy went to the College of the City of New York (CCNY then, later known as City University) from 1944 until he was drafted into the United States Army. He served in the Aleutian Islands on Shemya, the island closest to Vladivostok, USSR. He continued playing basketball, leaving the Army with the rank of Corporal in 1947.
At college, Rudy met Eleanor Lewis in 1945. She returned with her mother, Juanita, to their Seattle home when Juanita became ill. Rudy and Eleanor corresponded while he was in the service, and when Rudy was separated at Camp Stoneman in Pittsburg, California, he stopped in Seattle to visit Eleanor before going back to CCNY in New York. They became engaged, and Rudy returned to Seattle in 1948. They were married December 24, 1948 in her mother’s home. They have raised four sons, Martin Nathaniel, Reginald Lewis, Victor Llewellyn, and Benjamin Rudolph.
In the summer of 1948, Rudy worked for the Walla Walla Canning Company, outside Walla Walla, Washington. After that job ended, he worked helping to erect pre-fabricated houses in Walla Walla.
In Seattle Rudy worked first for the Veteran’s Administration beginning in September 1948, then entered the U. S. Postal Service in early January 1949. Eleanor joined him later in January. Once the children began arriving, they worked different shifts so that they alone cared for them. Rudy worked for the Federal Government for a total of 41 years, including military service. He worked in the Post Office beginning as Postal Clerk and retiring as Second Class Publications Specialist. Work travel included the Pacific Northwest and Washington, DC.
Rudy Hill prepared this autobiographical analysis segment for a college class, summer of 1986:
I was born into a family whose moral principles were exceptionally lofty. It is difficult to say just how much the adults during my childhood allowed these same principles to control their behavior. There was, however, a strict remonstration to the effect that as a child you should be seen and not heard. Another oft-quoted phrase was: “Do as I say; don’t do as I do.” I mentioned the word adults, because my family consisted not merely of my father, mother, older cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents, but their friends and my friends’ parents and teachers.
As you can see, I had a tremendously large circle of people who influenced me in one way or another. The preschool behavior patterns were indelibly imprinted by people like my mother (who took me on my first picnic at the age of four months); my Aunt Met, who held me on her lap while she played the piano; She had a truly good, near-perfect ear; I’m sorry to say that I’m not so blessed, although I do play the piano; my godmother, Florence Wheaton (Cousin Charles’ mother) who thought that from infancy I liked and trusted people too readily; my school teachers, such as Mr. Friedman, Mrs. Shanen, Miss Scarinzo and a host of others, all of whom believed strongly in my intelligence and moral worth. In retrospect, their belief in me was stronger than my belief in myself. My second and third music teachers, along with later entries (like my father-in-law) gave my ego and knowledge quite a boost.
My teachers in the New York City school system during the Thirties and early Forties thought of me as a boy of above-average intelligence. My father and mother agreed with that assessment, since they had figured this was the case soon after I entered the planet. I mentioned my parents in that instance to inform you that my father had no misgivings as to my level of intelligence, not to mention normalcy.
Through my parents, family, teachers and friends, my introduction to values such as honesty, clean living and hard work came early. As far as the aforementioned were concerned, the maxims they laid down and the work they laid out did not take a genius to understand. They considered me not unlike a blank sheet of paper. It was for them to see that I was filled with the necessary information and attitudes that should help me do more than just “get by” during my stay on this planet.
Much has been said concerning the influence of the church, fraternal organizations and schools upon different individuals. Through my mother, godmother, and minister (the Reverend Samuel D. Rudder), the church was instrumental in helping form my spiritual building blocks.
FUNERAL INFORMATION
An internment service is scheduled for Sunday, June 26th at 11:00 after the regular worship service. Father Dennis Campbell, will be presiding.
St. Clements Episcopal Church 1501 32nd Ave. S. Seattle, WA 98144-3917 206-324-3072
Memorial
Just as the Wave Cannot Exist
Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me. It is an uncomfortable doctrine which the true ethics whisper into my ear. You are happy, they say; therefore you are called upon to give much.
Albert Schweitzer
Looking into the portals of eternity
Looking into the portals of eternity teaches that the brotherhood of man is inspired by God's word; Then all prejudice of race vanishes away.
George Washington