In Memoriam - William Hill (December 15, 1932 – August 15, 2022)
Bill passed away at his farm on the outskirts of Rockwood, Ontario surrounded by family, a few months shy of his 90th birthday. He was born and raised in Lima, Peru, a son to Cecil and Grace and a brother to Doris and Pamela. His father emigrated from England to Peru to develop the country’s railway infrastructure and eventually married his mother Grace, a third generation Anglo-Peruana.
Like many other kids in his community, Bill and his sisters Doris and Pamela were sent north to boarding schools to pursue their formal education. At the tender age of 12, he boarded a steamship for the 3-week trip to Canada via the Panama Canal to commence his first year of boarding school at St. Andrews College in Aurora, Ontario. This ‘commute’ would play out at the end of each school year in late spring and once again in late summer to start the new school year, until he graduated in 1953. “Knobby” Hill, as he came to be known by his classmates, joined the Pipes & Drums, starred on the swim team, and eventually became a School Prefect.
The father of Bill’s best friend David Rea, instilled in him a fascination for rocks and minerals, borne from many prospecting trips that the two youngsters took with David’s father Jack Rea. This fascination led Bill to enroll in the Mining Engineering programme at the University of Toronto from which he graduated in 1958. While at the U of T, he starred on the university’s swim and water polo teams, ultimately earning his Athletic “T”. His mining career spanned over 50 years and took him to more than 50 countries around the globe, with each meticulously identified on a wall map of the world in his home office.
In the late-1960’s Bill was introduced by David Rea to Joyce, a 34-year-old widow with three young kids. He was completely and totally captivated and over the course of dinner at a Toronto spaghetti house, he decided this was the woman he wanted to marry. He told her so right there at the table on their very first date. Joyce was not convinced at first, but ultimately became as captivated as he was, and they enjoyed 53 wonderful years of marriage.
In the early 1970s, Joyce and Bill purchased a 100-acre farm on the outskirts of Rockwood , Ontario. The farm was to become their lifelong passion, as they lovingly restored the farmhouse built in 1863, in advance of permanently moving the family there from Toronto in 1976. The farm became the gathering place for the four kids, (Brian, Mary, David and William) and their friends while growing up and continued until his passing with the inclusion of daughters-in-law Elizabeth, Amy and Mara, son-in-law Andre and grandchildren Allyson, Andrew, Alexander, Chloe, Matti, Errik, Benoit, Abigail, Oliver and Jackson (d. 1 month). Bill’s 2 year old great grandson Graeme recently became his FaceTime buddy.
Birthday cake seems like an odd thing to remember about a man who lived almost 90 full years …. but it most assuredly was. No birthday celebration at the farm was complete without Bill lobbying for a corner piece and sometimes a second, while reminding everyone assembled that there were few things he liked more than birthday cake. Over time, the family realised that birthday cake was really incidental to what mattered to him. It was time spent with his family that gave him his greatest, deepest, and most lasting sense of happiness. In that sense, getting to have his cake and eat it too…a corner piece, even…was like a little extra icing, both literally and figuratively. ‘Poppa Bill’ will be sorely missed by his extended family and community of friends. www.grahamgiddyfh.com