Obituary: Samuel E. Hill

Samuel E. Hill, PhD. passed away on December 10 in Sacramento, California after a short illness. He was 79 years old. Sam was born in Prescott, Arizona on November 30, 1940 to George S. Hill and Helen Finlayson Hill. He was the name sake of his grandfather, Samuel Hill, who was the founder of The Sam’l Hill Hardware Company, one of the oldest family owned businesses in Arizona when it was sold in 1966. (89 years).

Sam graduated from Prescott High School in 1959 and from Arizona State University in Tempe in 1963. He received a Woodrow Wilson scholarship to Stanford University, where he obtained an MA in Peninsular Spanish language and a PhD in Historical Spanish. He was a professor of Spanish and Portuguese from 1968 to 2002 at Sacramento State University.

Professor Sam Hill was the author of a college text book entitled: Bilingual Grammar of English-Spanish Syntax”, which is now in its 3rd edition

Sam is survived by J. Alberto Santos, his husband of 17 years, his sister, Patricia Hill Tolley of Tucson and an assortment of nieces and nephews.

Samuel E. Hill was a very special person. We all said: He was the smartest person we ever met and he never forgot anything he ever knew.” He will be missed!!

Information provided by survivors.