OBITUARY

Rev. H. Eugene Hillman, C.S.Sp., Ph.D.

Posted

BETHEL PARK, Pa. — Congregation of the Holy Spirit Father H. Eugene Hillman, Ph.D., 84, died Aug. 5.

Father Hillman was born in Boston, Mass., and professed his vows Aug. 15, 1945 at Holy Ghost Novitiate, Ridgefield, Conn. He was ordained to the priesthood on Sept. 15, 1950 at St. Mary’s Seminary, Ferndale, Norwalk, Conn.

In 1951, he was appointed to East Africa where he served for 18 years in the missions of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia. He attended Vatican Council II as a guest of the Misereor Foundation in 1965, an agency that promotes development, fights worldwide poverty and injustice worldwide. Beginning in 1974, his teaching career spanned more than 25 years at the Institutes of the University of San Francisco, St. John’s University, Yale Divinity School, Weston Jesuit School of Theology, Maryknoll School of Theology and the Nairobi Institute for International Development. In Rhode Island, he taught for 12 years at Salve Regina University and the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, and at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies.

Father Hillman was the recipient of many fellowships and awards and author of numerous books and articles especially in the fields of missiology, ecclesiology and social ethics.

He retired to the Spiritan’s retirement home in Sarasota, Fla. in 1999 and was a resident of Libermann Hall, Bethel Park, since 2005.

Father Hillman is survived by a brother, John Hillman of Newport; two sisters, Dorothy Hillman of Newport and Mary Jane Saunders of East Falmouth, Mass.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Aug. 2 at the Spiritan Center, Bethel Park. Burial was in St. Mary’s Cemetery, O’Hara Township, Pittsburgh, Pa.