Robert Hill

Robert Hill
February 2, 1930 - January 16, 2023
La Jolla On January 16th, long-time La Jolla resident Robert (Bob) Lyndon Hill peacefully passed away at age 92, surrounded by his loving family. Born in Houston, Texas to Robert A. Hill and Manice (Massingale) Hill, Bob earned both his B.A. and B.S. in mechanical engineering from Rice University in Houston while participating in the Naval Reserve Officer Training Program, and he went on to serve his country as an officer on the USS Bairoko during the Korean War. After graduating from Harvard University with a Master's in Business Administration in 1958, Bob moved to La Jolla. He met his wife of 53 years, Louise M. Hill, in La Jolla; they were married in August of 1969. Together they had two children, Thomas and Sara.

Bob started his career in San Diego in the aerospace industry, holding engineering positions at General Dynamics Astronautics, Teledyne-Ryan and Topaz Inc. In the early 1970's, Bob took his life-long passion for music and playing the piano, and co-founded Organ Exchange, a first-of-its-kind retail chain in the music industry, which grew to become the largest retail chain of organ stores in the country in less than five years. Bob went on to steer Organ Exchange into a new parent company, becoming President of Mission Bay Investments (MBI.) MBI fundamentally transformed the piano and organ industry through manufacturing and retail of pianos, organs and other electro-acoustic instruments. MBI went on to acquire Gulbransen Inc. a long-standing manufacturer of pianos, player pianos and home organs in the United States. The technology developed at Gulbransen would eventually be licensed to the developers of modern digital synthesizers, and Gulbransen digital sound processors would create the sounds heard on many personal computers for decades to come. In 1998, Bob and his partners at MBI sold the assets of Gulbransen to National Semiconductor of Santa Clara, California, and he retired.

Upon retirement, Bob immediately turned his passion for playing golf into a full-time endeavor, playing as much as five days a week at La Jolla Country Club and at Morningside Country Club in Palm Desert. He continued playing the piano almost every day, which his family always joked about but also secretly always loved. His other retirement passions included a regular rousing poker home game with several groups of friends, and more recently Bob discovered the joys of playing bridge regularly with all of his buddies at La Jolla Country Club. Bob was a long-time member of the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club and the La Jolla Country Club, and his family shares warm memories of both clubs and their kindness and service through the years.

Bob is survived by his wife Louise, his son Thomas of Los Angeles, his daughter Sara Nordin (Brian) and his beloved only grandchild Catherine Nordin, of Point Loma.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, February 11th at 2pm at St. James by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in La Jolla, with a reception to follow at La Jolla Country Club. In lieu of customary remembrances, donations are welcomed by the family to the Fund for the O'Connor Building for Engineering and Science at Rice University through giving.rice.edu; or to your favorite charity.
Please sign the guest book online at legacy.com/obituaries/ lajollalight