Adams Sherman Hill M.D.

Adams Sherman Hill, M.D., of Concord, MA, passed away January 7, 2021, at home. He is survived by his wife Judith Morris Hill; daughter Martha Hill McNiff, Sunapee, NH, and granddaughters Laura Gibson, Leigh Gibson, Paige Gibson, Amy Gibson, and Addy McNiff. He was predeceased by a sister, Frances Lipp, Ft. Collins, CO, and his adult daughter Alison Hill. He was born on December 11, 1927, in Boston, MA spending his youth in Cambridge, MA, where he attended Shady Hill School. He subsequently graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and then from Harvard College in 1949 with study concentration in history. Post-graduate studies were completed at Western Reserve University School of Medicine, followed by an internship at Colorado General Hospital, Denver, and a medical residency at Buffalo General Hospital, N.Y. He then joined the hematology research team at the University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City. After three years of research there he married Judith Allen Morris and turned to clinical medicine, practicing hematology/oncology in Yakima, WA, for 36 years. He was remembered there for bicycling between home and office and between hospitals, and not the least for his compassionate and respectful relationships with patients and professional colleagues. Because his years practicing medicine included serving a Mexican immigrant population, he learned to speak Spanish and had opportunities to keep his fluency in French up to date as well. Throughout their lives he and his wife Judy enjoyed traveling to Mexico, where they absorbed the cultural life of Guadalajara, and particularly that of smaller towns. His facility with the language rewarded the couple with experiences they would otherwise not have enjoyed. They spent many other vacations bicycling and sea kayaking on the West Coast. A love for reading, writing stories and honing his language skills was lifelong. Over the years he thoroughly enjoyed his daughters and granddaughters. His life lessons for them were often couched in stories he made up. He introduced to them the joys of the sea and the lakes. His young New England cousins recall expanded family vacations at Squam Lake, NH, where they boated and he led them on rambles in the surrounding hills and tantalized them with ghost stories. In 2000 he and his wife retired to Concord, where he always preferred being called "Sherman" or "Mr. Hill" and not "Dr. Hill." Individuals and groups in Concord who have benefited from his scholarly leadership include the Emerson Reading Circle and the Shakespeare Reading Group. During retirement in Concord he frequented the library, kayaked the three rivers in every season, attended West Concord Union Church worship and study groups, hiked and walked. Throughout his youth, his professional life and in retirement, Sherman demonstrated a life of grace and insight and compassion. A small family memorial event service is planned, with a later service to be announced.