Robert Hite

Robert Hite touched many, disparate and far-reaching. On May 27, 2020 he lost a short and fierce battle with pancreatic cancer, surrounded by the love of his immediate family. At heart and by profession Hite was an artist. He was born in 1956 and spent his childhood outside of Bowling Green, a small town in rural Virginia. Hite envisioned himself as an artist from an early age. He traveled extensively throughout the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and South America, and he enjoyed early success in the eighties as an abstract landscape painter in Washington, DC. During the 1990s, Hite continued as an artist and commercial art director in New York City. Hite married his former wife Katherine Roberts, and they had two children, Aidan and Adeline. In 1997, the Hites moved to the Hudson Valley, and Hite transformed an old Methodist Church in Esopus, N.Y. into his studio. Hite has shown his work widely, most notably solo shows at The Nassau County Museum, Berkshire Museum and a solo installation at the Albany International Airport in New York. In 2014, Hite was awarded the John Guggenheim Fellowship. Hite often referred to his work as having a certain whimsy, but also a pathos. Though his work deals in abstraction, images of structures, dwellings, living spaces and the stories behind them are central to his pieces, which include paintings, sculpture and photography. One might say they are reflections of what home or domicile represent. Hite once said that his work is “an homage to people with lives that don’t get noticed so much. All of their stories are important to our culture.” Hite is survived by his immediate family, his siblings Beth McGee, Janet Gibson, Sidney Hite, Eva Hite, and by numerous nieces and nephews. He is predeceased by his parents Alfred and Mildred Hite. Robert Hite lives on through his art, as well as the effect which he had on so many he crossed paths with, nurtured, supported, and loved. We plan to have a celebration of Hite’s life in the near future. Arrangements are under the direction of the Wm. G. Miller & Son FH, Inc., Poughkeepsie, NY. If you wish to send an online condolence please visit our website at www.wmgmillerfuneralhome.com http://www.lastingmemories.com/robert-hite