Rita K. Hillman

HILLMAN--Rita K., the noted philanthropist and art collector, died Thursday night, November 8th, at Lenox Hill Hospital, on the Upper East Side. She was 95 years old. She was born Rita Jean Kanarek on May 16, 1912, in New York City and attended New York University from 1929 to 1932, where she studied psychology. In 1932, she married the publisher Alex Lester Hillman, and together they began collecting art, focussing mainly on French Impressionism and Post-Impressionist art. Over the years, the Hillmans amassed a remarkable collection of nineteenthand twentieth-century European paintings, drawings, and sculptures. Among the artists represented in the Hillman Collection are Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Miro, Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir, Bonnard, Degas, Cezanne, Seurat, Soutine and Modigliani. In 1966, their son Richard died tragically in a road accident at the age of 28. Rita's husband, Alex, died in 1968. After his death, Rita became the President of the Alex Hillman Family Foundation, and, under her leadership, the foundation began to play a major role in supporting the arts in New York City. In 1974, she became a founding trustee of the International Center of Photography, and, over the course of more than three decades of involvement with ICP, she served as chairman of the Board and then honorary chairman. She also served as vice chairman of the Board of the Brooklyn Academy of Music from 1982 to 1997 and was a member of the executive committee for more than thirty years. She was on the executive committee of the American Friends of the Israel Museum since its founding. In the late nineteeneighties, the city-and countrywide nursing shortage inspired her to shift the focus of the foundation to support nursing in New York City, with a special emphasis on bedside care, and to assist nursing students who couldn't afford tuition. In 1989, she established the Hillman/Penn Nursing Scholars Program at the University of Pennsylvania, which provides scholarships and postgraduate clinical mentoring opportunities to students committed to work for one year at a new York City hospital upon completion of their studies. In 1990, she partnered with Lenox Hill Hospital to found the Hillman Partners in Practice Program, and, in 1991, she established additional Hillman Scholar programs at the New York University Division of Nursing and the Phillips Beth Israel School of Nursing. Since their inception, Hillman Nursing Scholar programs and scholarships have helped more than 1200 registered nurses. In 2004, Rita received the American Journal of Nursing-Beatrice Renfield Caring for the Caregiver Award. Rita is survived by her son, Alex HIllman, as well as her grandson, Ahrin Mishan, the son of the late Richard Hillman, as well as by her grandchildren Eva, Rebecca, Janice, and Richard. A funeral service will be held at 10:30am on Monday, November 12th at Frank E. Campbell's, Madison Avenue and 81st Street. Burial will be at the Kensico Cemetery, in Valhalla, NY. In lieu of flowersc ontributions in her memory can be made to the charity of your choice.