Born in Ontario, Bill attended St. Catharines Collegiate and played minor-league hockey. At Princeton, he majored in chemical engineering, ate at Cap, and started at goalie for three years, winning the Blackwell Trophy for spirit and inspiration: “As a goalie, I didn’t make the spectacular glove saves, but I did have the knack of being on the right side of the puck most of the time.”
“Billy Hill was a very good goaltender and very hard to score on,” said John Cook, who played alongside him and held Princeton’s career goals record for 56 years with 68. “Much to the chagrin of our varsity hockey team in 1959, we freshmen tied them 5-5 in a real game with Billy rejecting plenty of rubber. He went on to keep us in many varsity games in his next three years.
“As an engineering major, he got ones (maybe now known as A’s) across the board,” John said. “Billy was as nice and kind as any person in our class and was an important contributor to it in so many ways.”
After Princeton, Bill earned both a master’s and a Ph.D. in statistics from the University of Wisconsin and then joined Allied Signal (now Honeywell) in Buffalo. During a long and successful career there, he became a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, training work groups on quality improvement. He won corporate awards, authored many professional articles, and served on boards of national organizations.
Surviving are daughters Cathi Mehnert and Cheryl Call, their spouses, and four grandchildren.