Thomas Waddell "Tom" Hill

Thomas "Tom" Waddell Hill, Ph.D., passed away on September 29 at the age of 87, in Asheville, due to long-term complications from a complete ischemic stroke suffered in September 2019. A physicist and politician, Tom was, above all, a father, grandfather, uncle, and brother. He was a rationalist who believed in the goodness of human beings, and he was a staunch anti-fascist and anti-imperialist.

Tom was born in December 1937 in a "badly run-down old wood frame house" on a farm in East Flat Rock. His parents were Boney Hampton Hill (1905-1968) and Sadie Dollie Clark (1911-1997). He was the fourth of five children. Tom later wrote, "my father and mother began married life with no material possessions and rose to the middle class through hard work and thriftiness."

In a memorable childhood incident, Tom nearly got trampled by a wild horse his dad had borrowed from Grandpa Waddell (1872-1948). Used to their gentle horse, Rowser Bill, Tom stood firm as the wild one charged, knocking him over and barely missing his head. Sadie grabbed a shotgun to "settle the score," but Boney calmed her down, promising to return the wild horse to Grandpa Waddell, thus avoiding further drama.

Tom graduated as valedictorian of Hendersonville High School in May 1956. That September he attended Wake Forest College under a Hankins Scholarship, later graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a B.S. in Physics and Mathematics in May 1960. While at Wake Forest, he worked on the family farm "during the Christmas holidays, spring break, and all summer long".

In August 1960, Tom first noticed his future wife, Virginia Lee Walker (1940-2019), onstage at the Flat Rock Playhouse's production of "As Long as They're Happy." They began dating several years later, and in June 1963, after a "whirlwind romance," they married at the First Baptist Church in East Flat Rock. Tom's older brother, Maurice "Bud" Don Hill (1934-2023), served as best man.

In September 1960, Tom attended the Physics and Astronomy graduate program at UNC at Chapel Hill under a Southern Studies Doctoral Fellowship. In 1965, he received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics under Bryce Seligman DeWitt, Ph.D. (1923-2004), a renowned physicist in gravitation and quantum field theory. Tom's thesis, on the characteristics of a collapsing universe, aimed to "remove the singularity at the origin for the Schwarzschild field." As Tom humorously noted, "It did not light the physics world on fire."

For the next 32 years, Tom used his doctorate to protect the country during the Cold War. For the first 20 years, he worked as a civilian employee for the US Air Force, with tours at the Eastern Test Range in Cape Canaveral, the Space Defense Center in Colorado Springs, the European USAF Headquarters in Ramstein-Miesenbach, and the Special Weapons Center in Albuquerque. He contributed to numerous defense projects, including the Space Shuttle program, the MX missile platform, and the Strategic Defense Initiative.

Tom left the US Air Force in 1985. In 1987, with support from former colleagues, he resumed defense work in Los Angeles as a subcontractor. During this period, he also provided a home to his sons during formative years in their education and early careers.

After retirement, Tom moved back to western NC, living "as a happy camper." He ultimately resided in Zirconia, where he cultivated a passion for politics. Initially a Republican, Tom switched parties in 1968 to support Eugene McCarthy's anti-Vietnam War stance. In 2014, he ran as the Democratic nominee for the US House of Representatives, serving North Carolina's 11th Congressional district. Coincidentally, Tom's father-in-law, Harold Lee Walker (1914-1976), also ran for the same district as a Democrat in 1950 but lost in the primary.

In 2016, Tom published a memoir about his childhood and teenage years, Some Time Ago: Growing Up in Western North Carolina. He also published a technical book, The Magnetic-Like Component of The Solar Gravitational Field, which addresses the propagation of gravity effects by waves. Tom noted that the latter "may not be of general appeal to lay readers." As recently as April 2019, Tom was seeking to submit a paper for peer review that challenged the existence of dark matter in the Milky Way.

Tom and Virginia divorced in October 1985. He is survived by his immediate family members: son Steven, his wife Corinne, and their children Calista, Gabriella, and Madeline; son Michael and his wife Maple; son Philip, his wife Hiromi, and their children Phoenix and Hunter; and brother Garford Tony Hill. He was preceded in death by two older sisters, Ora Vivian Hill (1930–2016) and Barbara Hill Garrison (1931–2022). His ancestors include Maj. William Mills (1746-1834), Pvt. John Merrill (1757-1833; NSDAR #823490), Rev. Samuel Edney (1765-1844), and James Dyar Justice (1789-1857).

Tom Hill's life was a testament to resilience, intellectual curiosity, and the importance of family and community. His legacy will be remembered fondly by those who knew and loved him.

A memorial service will be held at 2:00PM on Saturday October 18, 2025, at Church Street funeral & Cremation, 125 S. Church St. Hendersonville, NC 28792