ONEONTA - The life of retired professor Donald R. Hill will be celebrated from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 24, in Mills Courtyard on the SUNY Oneonta campus. He died Sunday, Dec. 30, 2018, at Albany Medical Center, with his family by his side. He was 79.
Donald was the son of the late Lowell and Rosemond Hill of Long Beach, California.
He joined the Army in 1962 serving as a Korean linguist on the DMZ.
Donald went on to receive a bachelor's degree in philosophy from San Francisco State University and traveled with a friend through the South taping musicians, collecting interviews and countless documents. He was a music consultant for some documentary films.
These subsequently became part of Folkways Recordings, now part of the Smithsonian institute and soon will be added to the Library of Congress. He and his friend received funding from the Grammy Foundation to digitize their materials.
He received his doctorate in cultural anthropology at Indiana University working on his research regarding migration in the Caribbean, primarily on the island of Carriacou for two years. He subsequently worked as a curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
In 1976, Dr. Hill was employed by SUNY Oneonta and retired in 2016. He taught cultural anthropology, folklore and ethnomusicology in the anthropology and African and Latino departments. He published two books, many scholarly articles, photographs, field notes and magazine articles. The Africana and Latino studies departments have organized the celebration of his life.
Survivors include his wife of 56 years, Blanche Taylor Hill; son, Anthony Alan Hill of Salisbury, Maryland; and grandson, Anthony Raymond Hill of Sidney.
Published on April 21, 2019
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