FREDERIC H. HILTON

1924 - 2019

HILTON, Frederic H. Attorney, Boston and Falmouth Of Duxbury, Massachusetts, died January 1, 2019 after a brief illness. Born August 5, 1924 in Framingham, Massachusetts, he grew up there as the son of lawyer Frederic H. Hilton, Sr., and Madeline Metcalf Hilton. He is survived by his wife of 71 years, Nancy Thayer Hilton; his daughter Hope Hilton and son-in-law Terrence W. Flanagan of Harpswell, Maine; his son Timothy T. Hilton of Cambridge, Massachusetts; his niece Hope Deborah Andruss of Alexandria, Virginia; his grandsons Liam Hilton Flanagan and wife Mika Alexander Flanagan of Brooklyn, New York, and Patrick Hilton Flanagan of Manchester, Massachusetts; and his great-granddaughter Matilda Alexander Flanagan. Fred graduated from Milton Academy in 1942, Harvard College in 1944 (Class of 1946) and Harvard Law School in 1948. In 1944, he interrupted his academic career to serve as an officer in the United States Navy amphibious forces in the Pacific Theater. His service there covered stints in the Carolines, the Marianas, the Philippines, Okinawa and other ports in Japan. He ended his naval career in 1946 as the commanding officer of LST 828. Following graduation from law school, Fred joined the law firm of Hutchins & Wheeler (now Nixon Peabody), where his practice covered business, trust and estate management. In 1983, he opened a branch office in downtown Falmouth, Massachusetts where he was joined by Jodee P. Bishop. Fred and Jodee established Hilton & Bishop in 1994 as a boutique firm concentrating in trust and estate planning and administration. The firm celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2014, with Fred continuing to practice law until shortly before his death. His activities in the legal profession included membership in the Massachusetts State Bar Association (member of its Board of Delegates from 1964 to 1967), the Boston Bar Association, the South Middlesex Bar Association, the Barnstable Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Real Estate Bar Association (President from 1964 to 1967), the Abstract Club, a Land Court Examiner and a founding member of the Boston Probate and Estate Planning Forum. Fred was active in community activities. He was elected to the first representative town meeting in Framingham in 1951 and remained a member until 1969, serving during this time period in various capacities including the Town Governance Committee (Chairman), Finance Committee (Chairman), and two terms as Town Moderator. During this time period, he found time to be the principal author of a comprehensive study on town managers and proposed changes in town government. On a broader landscape, he served as a director or board member of numerous non-profit organizations, including the Framingham Visiting Nurses Association, Framingham Union Hospital, Framingham Home for the Aged, Framingham Historical Society, Danforth Museum, Cape Cod Community Foundation, JML Care Center and the Falmouth Hospital Finance Committee. He served as a trustee and general counsel of the Virgilian Society of the United States, and was a founding trustee of Heritage Museums and Gardens in Sandwich. From 1982 to 1998, he served as Clerk and Member of the Corporation of The Society of St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Fred was active in politics throughout his professional career. He was chairman of the Framingham-Eisenhower-Herter Campaign in the 1952, member of the Framingham Republican Town Committee from 1952 to 1973 (chairman from 1953 to 1957), a delegate to Republican State Conventions from 1952 through 1964, and co-chairman of the Framingham Edward Brooke Committee from 1964-1966. Fred was a fly fisherman from an early age, a lifelong sailor and explorer of the New England coast, and an American history buff. His grandfather, at the age of 17, enlisted in the 28th Maine Regiment in Wiscasset, Maine in October of 1862. Fred grew up in a Framingham household surrounded by artifacts and stories of the Civil War. As a result, he remained a passionate student of that war and its battlefields. And well into their nineties, he and Nancy were regular and loving visitors to the Romanesque churches and Cistercian abbeys of Burgundy, followed by discerning and knowledgeable consumption of Burgundian wines. Fred will be interred at the family plot at Edgell Grove Cemetery in Framingham and a memorial service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Fred's name to any non-profit organization.

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