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Sunday, September 7, 2014

Imogene "Teddy" Hill (1927-2003)

Apple's co-founder Steve Jobs called her "saint".  She was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.  Her bury site is in section 60 near York DR.  14th row from Eisenhower DR.  3rd from York DR.

Quote:
My mother taught me to read before I went to school, so I was pretty bored in school, and I turned into a little terror. You should have seen us in third grade. We basically destroyed our teacher. We would let snakes loose in the classroom and explode bombs. Things changed in the fourth grade, though. One of the saints in my life is this woman named Imogene Hill, who was a fourth-grade teacher who taught this advanced class. She got hip to my whole situation in about a month and kindled a passion in me for learning things. I learned more that year than I think I learned in any year in school.

Steve Jobs, 1985
"Steve Jobs: The Brilliant Mind Behind Apple" by Anthony Imbimbo

pp.17-18: Steve was also a strong-willed and refused to do schoolwork that he considered a waste of time.  If it weren't for his fourth grade teacher, Steve may have had an entirely different future.  The teacher, Imogene "Teddy" Hill, recognized how bright Steve was and found ways to motivate him to do his work.  "I really want you to finish this workbook," she would tell him, "I'll give you five bucks if you finish it." The little bribes, along with Teddy's encouragement and her belief in his ability, changed Steve's study habits.  He started performing brilliantly.  Steve did so well in fourth grade that his teachers recommended he skip fifth grade.  "I'm 100% sure that if it hadn't been for Mrs. Hill in fourth grade and a few others, I absolutely would have ended up in jail," Steve said years later.


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Imogene "Teddy" Hill was to be buried today alongside her husband at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. Born Feb. 26, 1927, in Fairbank, Pa., she died Sept. 4, 2003, at Kaiser Hospital in Sacramento with her family by her side. She was 78 years old.

She had a rich heritage of interest in education, service to and a love for others throughout her life. She was featured in Neighbors Magazine in 1991 and was quoted as saying, "The four big things for me are my family and friends, the stage, teaching and real estate. Those have been the fabric of my life."

As a child of 3, she acted on the vaudeville stages of Pittsburgh, Pa. She was Little Imogene, a diminutive bundle of energy, who tried to steal the show from the likes of Cab Calloway and Dick Powell. She and her brother Aldino, also a dancer, entertained as a brother/sister act on local stages in and around the Pittsburgh area.

During World War II, she studied at Temple University in Philadelphia, graduating in 1946. While there, she starred in a production of "Junior Miss" and was awarded a listing of "Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities."

In 1949, she married a young West Point graduate from the Class of 1946, Steven Hilovsky. He later changed his name to Hill. She traveled with him around the world on assignments.

>From 1962 to 1964 they lived in Palo Alto, where she taught elementary school in the Whisman School District in Mountain View. One of her students was Steven Jobs, founder of Apple Computer Corp. Jobs, who was in her fourth-grade class, called her "one of the saints in my life," and has credited her with being a strong influence in his success.

After their assignment in Mountain View, the Hills traveled to the island of Guam. While there, she produced and directed a production of the musical "Bye, Bye Birdie." Upon returning to California, she taught at Del Dayo Elementary School in Sacramento's San Juan Unified School District, where her daughter, Karen Hill Garman, now teaches art.

Mrs. Hill also enrolled at UC Davis. In the early 1970s, while in her 50s, she earned a master of arts degree. She also studied in India and was named a Fulbright Scholar in 1976.

In 1977, she was recognized for her many achievements and dedication to teaching by being selected by the California Teachers Association as the San Juan School District's Teacher of the Year.

More recently, she had been a real estate entrepreneur and a civic leader in North Sacramento, a community for which she had long fought, in hopes of having it achieve what she described as "its ultimate potential."

She was preceded in death by her husband of 40 years, Steven Hill, who died March 14, 1989, and her brother, Aldino Guerrieri of Mechanicsburg, Pa., who died in 2001.

She is survived by a brother, Robert Guerrieri and his wife Gloria of Lower Burrell, Pa.; a sister-in-law, Ruth Guerrieri of Mechanicsburg, Pa.; a daughter, Karen Hill Garman of Davis; two sons, Steven E. Hill and Richard Hill and his wife Ruby; and five grandchildren, Steven Morgan Garman, Flannery Hill, Jonas Hill, Lee Ann Hill and Virginia Hill.

Private services were to be held today at Arlington National Cemetery.

(Obituary from the "The Davis Enterprise," Friday, September 19, 2003, (Yolo County, California). Submitted with the permission of the "The Davis Enterprise," 315 G Street, Davis, CA 95616, <http://www.davisenterprise.com/>;. Please note: I am not related to the family listed above, and I do not have any further information on this family.)


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Section 60
Grave 1572

intersection: York Dr and Eisenhower Dr.

3 comments:

  1. I am very sorry, but reading all the praise for Imogene Hill makes me want to puke up my heart. You see, I was one of her students at Del Dayo Elementary School, in 6th grade.
    At the time, she was running 3 different segmentations of her class as far as English and spelling; advanced (my group), "normal" and remedial.
    I will remind you that we were ALL in the SAME classroom, TOGETHER.
    One day, a classmate who was in the remedial part came up to me and asked me why I was in the advanced and she was (her words) in the slow part.
    I was taught NEVER to lie, so I told her the truth; "because I'm smarter than you." Sounds harsh (my IQ is 182, and hers as a guess was about 92.) but it was the truth, and Ms. Hill KNEW that (I was scheduled for a semester at UC Davis, which I did and got straight A's; and please remember we are talking about SIXTH GRADE)
    Ms. "change my life" Hill's solution to what she thought was arrogance (but it was the truth) was to put the girl who had asked into advanced, and me into remedial, which hurt the other girl FAR worse than it hurt me. I was merely bored and angry with Ms. Hill; the other girl got thrown WAY over her head, and was stuck with it.
    After a week, I pleaded with Ms. Hill to rescind my punishment for the sake of the other girl, and she refused. She actually said that the SLOWER one needed the lesson. Which was TOTAL bullshit; she thought she was punishing ME.
    At the end of this period of time, she came to me and said I guess I was wrong about BOTH your characters. I figured she would ask you for answers,and you would give them, I thought I would catch you both in the act and expel BOTH of you.
    Then she looked me dead in the eyes and told me I was the one she REALLY wanted to get rid of.
    I asked her why, and she told me flatly that I was the only student she had ever had who was smarter than she was, and she did not like that.
    Maybe, in a way, I paved the way for her other brilliant student, to come later, Steve Jobs.

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  2. My name is NOI Amy Saderup; she is my youngest daughter, and is the one who happens to be associated with this account.
    MY name is Lynda (maiden name) Harbinson, and I was in fact a student of Imogene Hill's at Del Dayo Elementary in Carmichael CA.
    And I will swear, upon prosecution for libel, slander, or possible perjury, that everything I have said is true.

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    Replies
    1. anyways what some people find to be a saint, others will find to be a demon. Don't worry.

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