Gene Adkins Hill

Background

Gene Hill was born on May 15, 1928, in Swartswood, New Jersey, United States. He was the eldest son of Irving Hill and Pauline (Flynt) Hill. Gene had two brothers: Walter I. Hill and Edwin E. Hill.

Education

Gene entered high school at the age of 12-years-old and graduated as Class President.

Career

During World War II Gene enlisted, at the age of 17-years-old, in the United States Army but was discharged because he was underage. At 18 he re-enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces where he rose to the rank of Sergeant, Air Operations Specialist, and served until 1947. Part of his time was spent on Okinawa.

Upon graduating from Harvard in 1952, Gene worked briefly as Assistant Manager of Anken Chemical and Film in his home state of New Jersey. In 1953 he began a 19-year career in the advertising industry in New York, first as a copywriter at Young & Rubicam until 1955. His accounts there included Four Roses whiskey, Spalding, Lifesavers, Gulf, Time Magazine, Life Magazine, Royal Typewriter, Lipton, and others. After leaving Y&R he travelled, skied, and climbed mountains in Europe. Later in 1955 he joined Donerty, Clifford, Steers & Shenfield, Inc. as a copywriter, but left in 1956 as he was not happy this small agency. He joined J. Walter Thompson that same year, worked on the Pan Am account, and was a writer in their Editorial Department, remaining there until 1960 when he resigned to join Doyle Dane Bernbach. Gene returned to JWT in 1964 where he became a Senior Writer and member of the Ford Advanced Planning Group. He later worked on the Firestone account. In 1970 Gene was appointed Creative Supervisor in the Copy area. He subsequently became Creative Director and a Vice-President. Gene left JWT, and the advertising industry, in 1972 to become an Executive Editor at "Sports Afield" magazine. During his advertising career he lived in New York and Pennington, New Jersey.

Gene began his full-time authorial career at "Sports Afield" where he wrote their monthly "Tailfeathers" column. He also worked for "Guns & Ammo" magazine as a columnist where he wrote their monthly "Parting Shot" column. He also wrote the monthly "Shotgunner's Notebook" column for "Gun Dog Magazine." It was at "Field & Stream" magazine in 1977 that he found his outdoor home. There he wrote the monthly "Hill Country" column for nearly 20-years, and also served as an Associate Editor.

During his tenure with Field & Stream, Gene's black Labrador retriever Tippy once made an appearance with him on NBC's "Today Show."

Achievements

• Gene Hill gained prominence for his writings about outdoor activities and hunting dogs. He was known as a leader in the post-war generation of sophisticated writers who helped free the genre of ''outdoors writing" from the cliches and overt sentimentality that had previously been a staple of outdoor magazines.
  
  Moreover, the Outdoor Writers Association of America honored him as their "Deep Woodsman of the Year" in 1977, and awarded him their "Book Knife Award" in 1978.
  
  On Thursday, October 12, 2000, the Governor of the State of New Jersey, The Honorable Christine Todd Whitman, posthumously honored Mr. Hill through a Proclamation declaring Friday, October 20, 2000 as "Gene Hill Day."

Works

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  • A Gallery of Waterfowl and Upland Birds

    (This book will be read and enjoyed by anyone, who loves t...)

    1978
  • Passing a Good Time with Guns, Dogs, Fly Rods, and Other Joys

    (For years Gene Hill has been our 'new eyes' and thus, iro...)

    1996
  • A Hunters Fireside Book

    (This is a book of brilliantly written observations, refle...)

    1972

  • Hill Country: Stories About Hunting and Fishing and Dogs and Guns and Such

    ("These are stories of duck, pheasant, and quail shooting,...)

    1978
  • Tears & Laughter -- A Couple of Dozen Dog Stories

    (The author recalls memorable hunting dogs (some his, some...)

    1981
  • Outdoor Yarns & Outright Lies

    (This is the second classic collection of stories from wel...)

    1983
  • A Listening Walk...and other stories

    ("This book is vintage Hill -- cause for celebration by th...)

    1985
  • Shotgunner's Notebook

    (Gene Hill presents the experiences and judgement of a wor...)

    1989
  • Mostly Tailfeathers -- Stories About Guns and Dogs and Birds and Other Odds and Ends

    (This book is about hunting and fishing, but its more than...)

    1975
  • Sunlight and Shadows -- Essays and Stories on the Out-of-Doors

    ("His essays transcend the bounds of writer-reader relatio...)

    1990
  • The Whispering Wings of Autumn

    (This book, "...represents the first collaborative effort ...)

    1981

Views

Quotations: "And what will we take from November? To some of us, the pheasants will seem smarter, the quail and grouse faster, the ducks a little higher than we remember. It is not important that we do especially well; it is important only that we went."

"You know what the ideal dove gun for any-given day is? Your other gun — the one you left at home."

"Our greatest trophies are not things, but times."

"If in a single day we smell coffee, dawn, gun oil, powder, a wet dog, woodsmoke, bourbon, and the promise of a west wind for a fair tomorrow — and it’s possible for us to reek "happy"— that’s just what we will do."

"Good fires make good friends."

"Whoever said you can't buy happiness forgot little puppies."

"Why do so many of us think that good equipment is a substitute for practice?"

"Don't brag about your equipment or skills. One is obvious, and the other will soon be."

Membership

While at Harvard, Gene was a member of Pi Eta Society and the Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770.

Friends of Frank Merriwell.

Harvard Club of New York.

Personality

Hill was an avid sportsman, who brought his readers articles about outdoor activities, particularly bird hunting and fly-fishing. He often wrote about his love for dogs as well.

He was a formidable competitor at trap, skeet, and live-pigeon shooting, and was also a scratch golfer who, according to friends who would know, could have been a PGA Tour professional.

Physical Characteristics: According to a profile (dated March 2, 1960) of Gene in a J. Walter Thompson house organ, "...at one time or another Gene has wrestled, skied, squashed, golfed and ridden to the hounds. A Judo instructor in the Army (Air Corps), he also played football for a championship 1st Air Division team. He taught swimming at Harvard, coached wrestling at Perkins Institute (Perkins School for the Blind). He owns a skeet trophy (1) and the Amarillo Air Base (originally Amarillo Army Air Field) record for sit-ups (451)."

Quotes from others about the person

• "Gene Hill writes for the classic "Everyman" and every man finds something in his writing, that is personally meaningful. He saw something in a little thing — a broken dog lead or an empty shotgun shell — the rest of us missed. And he told us about it as only he could do, and we knew something more about what happened and about ourselves, too." — Jim Rikhoff, an author.
  
  In a feature titled "Remembering Mr. Hill" in the May 7, 2024 online version of "Gray's Sporting Journal," author David E. Petzal wrote, in part, that, "Gene presented himself as a loveable bumbler in order to connect with his readers. In real life he was anything but. He had a trophy room in his house, and there was more silver in it than there is in Tiffany’s on any given day. He was a shotgunner, not a rifleman, and did his best work at trap and box birds."

Interests

• Photography.

• Writers

  A.J. Liebling, Ernest Hemingway, Joseph Mitchell, William Harnden Foster, S.J. Perelman, and more.

• Artists

  A.B. Frost, John Groth, and others.

• Sport & Clubs

  Upland bird-hunting; waterfowling; fly-fishing for trout and Atlantic salmon; trap, skeet, and sporting-clays shooting; and golf.
  
  Gene was a member, and past President, of the Nassau (New York) Sportsmen's Club.

• Music & Bands

  Tom T. Hall
  
  Gene also loved bluegrass and the music of the bagpipes.

Connections

Gene was married to Marcia (or Marica) Elizabeth Hill, nee Haynes, of Springfield, Massachuests. Their marriage produced two daughters: Patricia Comly and Jennifer Hill. Also, he had two grandsons. Gene and Marcia divorced.

Gene later married Cathy Lee Hill, nee Jordan, a native of Virginia, and an attorney. She is his widow.

Father:

Irving Hill

Mother:

Pauline (Flynt) Hill

child:

Patricia Comly

Eldest daughter of Gene and Marcia Hill.

child:

Jennifer Hill

Youngest daughter of Gene and Marcia Hill

Brother:

Walter I Hill

Walter was an attorney, graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He practiced in Newton, New Jersey, and passed in nearby Fredon on Tuesday, December 23, 2008.

Brother:

Edwin E. Hill

Wife:

Marcia Elizabeth Hill, nee Haynes

Married August 21, 1955. They eventually divorced.

Gene's second wife was Cathy Lee Hill, nee Jordan, a native of Virginia, and an attorney. She became his widow.

Friend:

James Cornwall Rikhoff

Mr. Rikhoff was the Public Relations Counsel for Winchester Repeating Arms Company, then subsequently helped found their Winchester Press publishing business. After leaving Winchester he founded the National Sporting Fraternity and the Amwell Press publishing company. He and Mr. Hill met in 1959 and were close friends for 38-years. Mr. Rikhoff passed in Connecticut on May 2, 2026 at the age of 94.

References

• Beyond Hill Country - Gene Hill Remembered A book compiled and edited by Jim Rikhoff and Monica Sullivan, and published by The Amwell Press - Clinton, New Jersey. This is a collection of reminiscences written by Gene's friends including: Ernest Schwiebert, Jack Sampson, Lamar Underwood, Stanley Bogdan, Tom Hennessey, Herb Strasser, Steve Smith, Bob Brister, David Petzal, and a host of others.
  2004