On Wednesday, November 11th, 2020, Walter R. Hill of San Antonio, Florida (formerly of Baltimore, MD) passed away due to complications related to heart disease.

Born June 27th, 1945 to Estella "Stell" Hill and Paul Ellawood Hill Sr. of Baltimore, Walter (or "Butch" to his family) grew up close to his siblings Paul, Patricia, and Linda, in the tightknit community of Helena Avenue in Essex, MD. Walt always had a special closeness to his youngest sister Linda, which continued until her death in 2019. He was also especially connected to his next-door neighbor from Helena Avenue, Kay Dolan (Skupas). From the time each was six years old, Walt and Kay had a deep and loving bond that transcended time and distance; even nearly seven decades later, whenever the two would get together, it seemed as if theyd never parted.

Walt attended Kenwood High School and graduated in 1963, after which he began work at Hutzlers Department store, making numerous close friends along the way.

In 1968, Walter was drafted into the United States Army and sent to Viet Nam, where he served as an infantryman and radio operator in Pleiku in the Central Highlands, an experience that would forever change him. He saw active combat, and was wounded in action, earning a Purple Heart and Combat Infantrymans Badge. After his service in combat, Walt stayed in country and worked various non-combat jobs for the Army until his term of service ended in 1969.

After learning how to dispatch and manage truck drivers at Valentine Trucking and Kane Transport in the 1970s and 1980s, Walt took a job at Giant Foods transportation division in Landover, Maryland. It was here that Walt would work for the rest of his career; countless thousands, even millions of people throughout the 1990s and early 2000s sat down to meals made with the food that Walt made sure got where it needed to go. He was known at Giant as a consummately organized professional, one of the best dispatchers in the business, and found considerable success.

Walter married Marie Sharon Hill, a friend from his teenage years, in 1974, divorcing in 1996. They had two sons, Matthew (b. 1974) and Joshua (b. 1976). Walt was a dedicated father who strove very hard to make sure that his boys had everything they needed to be successful in life; he ensured they took advantage of top-notch educations and all the opportunities he felt they deserved. To provide for his family, he worked long hoursoften on shiftworkand still made time to be present for his kids, pushing them to do their best and teaching them how to take care of themselves and their home. Many Saturday afternoons were spent cleaning and fixing up the familys house, always accompanied by Walts favorite soundtrack, Ms. Patsy Cline. His tireless example illustrated to both his sons the immense responsibility that came with being a father, a lesson not lost on Walt himself. He taught his sons to keep their promises, take their time, do a good job, and do right by everyone simply because it was the correct thing to do. His watchword, "responsibility," would often punctuate any lesson he taught Matt and Josh. It worked, as Joshua is a successful architect and business owner, happily married to K.K. Wong, and Matthew is a tenured college professor with a loving wife, Bethany, and two daughters, Katherine Irena and Juliet Marie. One of Walts happiest pastimes was telling everyone in his social circle how proud he was of the men that his sons became. His pride in his sons was perhaps only matched by his adoration for his granddaughters, whose pictures cover an entire wall of his home. The girls always looked forward to talking and laughing with their Gramps whenever he would call or visit.

After his retirement from Giant, Walter moved from Baltimore to his current home in San Antonio, Florida in 2007. A resident of the Tampa Bay Golf and Country Club community, Walt was a popular fixture in the clubhouse or at the pool, and spent many wonderful times with his close friend Joanne Thomas and her daughter Debbie, whom Walt considered family. Walt found a close group of friends at Tampa Bay, which made the last 13 years of his life some of his best.

Anyone who knew Walt knew three things about him after a few minutes: his love of storytelling and humor, his love of plants, and his love of all things elephant-related. With a wonderful eye for detail and a profound ability to laugh (even at himself), Walts stories of his childhood, of his time in Viet Nam (both in the war and when he returned for a visit in 2006 with his sons), his time raising a family, and his time caring for his aging mother, always enthralled his audiences, at times leaving everyone crying tears of laughter. Most powerful were the stories where Walt himself was the center of the joke. A naked run through the jungles of Viet Nam chasing an also-naked gung-ho colonel, a pants-button failure in a public elevator, and the time he accidentally ate someone elses food at Starbucks were some of his favorites to tell, and he often laughed harder than anyone at the situations in which he found himself.

Similarly, Walts talents for raising anything green were extraordinary. Every home he has lived in has been filled with plants of all shapes and sizes, all cared for with his dedicated hands. Many friends and family members would bring Walt a nearly-dead piece of greenery and watch as he would bring it back to life with care and grace. His lanai at his home in San Antonio is a living shrine to his love of growing things.

Walts love of plants was matched only by his love of elephants in all their forms. His house is home to hundreds, if not over a thousand sculptures, paintings, drawings and other elephant-related pieces of art. Big and small, realistic and abstract, the elephants that populated his house were always a conversation starter, usually as a visitor would notice a particularly interesting pachyderm sitting on a table somewhere.

Walt will be remembered as a hardworking, caring father and grandfather, a master humorist and storyteller, a gardening wizard, and the curator of what seems like the largest collection of elephant knickknacks ever assembled. Hell also live in the hearts of his friends, for whom he would do pretty much anything, from emergency airport and grocery-store runs to doctors appointments and last-minute dinner dates. He was always the life of any party, and theyll never be the same after hes gone. Happy trails, Walt. Love you always.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that a donation be made in Walters name to the Wounded Warrior Project. A donation link is located here: https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/