George Richard Hill III (79), husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, companion and friend, passed away peacefully Sunday, April 22, 2001, after a courageous battle with cancer.
The son of George R. Hill, Jr. and Elizabeth McKay Hill, George was born in Ogden, Utah, Nov. 24, 1921, and moved to Salt Lake at age four. He married Melba Parker in the Salt Lake Temple Aug. 25, 1941. They are the parents of seven children.
George attended Salt Lake City schools, graduating from East High School. He received an A.B. degree in Chemistry from the Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. in Inorganic and Physical Chemistry from Cornell University. He received an Honorary Doctorate Degree of Science from Brigham Young University in 1980.
In 1987 George was called to the Second Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and assigned to the Philip-pines-Micronesia Guam Area as a counselor in the Area Presidency. In 1990 he served in the Area Presidency of the Utah South Area.
George served as a Regional Representative of the Quorum of the Twelve and a Counselor in two General Y.M.M.I.A. superintendencies. He served as bishop of the Holladay Second, Federal Heights and Yale Second Wards, and as a counselor in the bishopric of the Cottonwood Twelfth Ward in Salt Lake City. He also served as a guide on Temple Square and counselor to the district president, Seneca District, Eastern States Mission.
George was active in the Boy Scouts of America, serving as a member of the Region XII Executive Board and of the Explorer Committee of the National B.S.A. Council. He was Commissioner of the Great Salt Lake Council, and received the Silver Beaver, Silver Antelope and Silver Buffalo awards.
George was Dean of the College of Mines and Minerals Industry at the University of Utah, director of the Office of Coal Research in the United States Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., and director of the Fossil Fuel Department of the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, California. He organized and chaired the Department of Fuels Engineering at the University of Utah, and was a member of the National Coal Council. He was a member of the Utah Energy Conservation and Development Council, and was appointed to the Envirotech Endowed Chair at the University of Utah in 1977.
George served twice as a member of the team representing the President of the United States on visits to the former Soviet Union in scientific exchange programs, and was named to the National Academy of Engineering.
He is survived by his wife, Melba; sons, Richard (Katie) Hill, Robert (Jean) Hill, and David (Shauna) Hill; daughters, Margaret Nielson, Carolyn (Scott) Allen, Susan (Steven) Mann and Nancy (Bill) Bauman; a brother, David M. Hill; 32 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. George was preceded in death by his parents and a sister, Elizabeth Boswell Shaw.
Funeral services will be held Friday, April 27, 2001 at 12 noon in the Salt Lake Stake Center, 142 W. 200 N. Friends may call Thursday evening from 6-8 p.m. at Larkin Mortuary, 260 E. South Temple, and Friday from 10:30-11:45 a.m. at the Salt Lake Stake Center. Interment, Larkin Sunset Lawn Cemetery.