Roger's Scrapbook

(Some of the photos displayed here may be interactive.)

Family Page

George Eugene "Gene" Hill
(1911-1996)

Chapter 1. From Birth to age 55.

KidsGeneLucille — With sister, Mary Lucille Hill, born 17 Sep 1914.

Gene@1919 — Gene at his First Communion. Circa 1919.

Gene@1922 — Gene with his family in San Bernardino, CA, circa 1922.
L to R: Gene, mother Ida, sister Mary Lucille, Hill, cousin Mary Helen, Grandmother Margaret, cousin Donna, Kohlhaas.

IdaGeneLucille@1927 — Gene with mother Ida and sister Lucille circa 1927.

Gene@1930 — Gene circa 1930. Right out of High School.

Gene_Signal — Gene's first job: driving a gasoline truck for Signal Oil. Circa 1930.

Gene_1931 — Gene at about 20 years of age: at about the time he met Alice.

GeneAlice_1932 — Gene and Alice circa 1932.

Gene_1933 — Gene at 21. Filthy white corduroy pants were all the rage in San Bernardino in 1933!

AliceGene32a — Alice and Gene at the beach summer 1932.

parents — George Eugene and Alice Marie Hill. August 15, 1933. Riverside, CA.

AuntRosies — Aunt Rosie's house on 8th St, Riverside (near the present day intersection of University and Chicago Avenues).

GeneGreeks_1933 — Gene with his new family, the Greeks of Riverside.

GeneLucille — Gene with his sister, Lucille.

Alice1935 — Alice was 3 months pregnant when these pictures were taken.

AliceColton — The house at 1118 Colton Ave where their first child (me) was born.

RogerCarn — A true California boy: early at the wheel.

AliceFam1938a — Alice holding Rich with Gene and Roger. Early 1938.

AliceBoys1938 — Alice and Gene with their boys, Richard and Roger, 1938.

GeneRR — Gene (2nd from left) with some of the men he took his Railroad Fireman's exam with.

AliceFam39 — Gene, Alice, Roger (L) and Richard (R) Hill. December 16, 1939.

AliceTwins9 — Jim (L) and John (R) December, 1940.
And then there were six.

AliceTwins1940 — Jim (L) and John (R) on a visit to Uncle George and Aunt Ann Kohlhass' house at 1237 Michael Street in San Bernardino.

AliceFam40 — Alice (holding John) with Gene's mother, Ida Ellen Hill, (holding Jim). Rich (L) and Roger are standing in front. Dec, 1940.

Gene_SP — Gene (L) with some of his fellow railroadmen at the Southern Pacific Roundhouse, Colton, CA.

AliceBoys1941 — Gene and Alice with their boys in the front yard at 48 Eureka Street, San Bernardino, in Feb, 1941.
L to R: Rich, Jim, John, Roger.

GreekHills42 — Gene with Alice and her family at a Greek family gathering at 3351 Kansas Ave in Riverside, early 1942.
L to R: Gene, Ray and Virginia, Bill, Verda, Clarence, Sr Colette, Mayme, Claude, and Rolly. In front: Roger, Richard, Jim, Alice, John, and Jack Greek.

By now World War II was, of course, raging in Europe and the Pacific. Gene, having 4 children and an essential occupation as a Railroad Engineer, was not subject to the draft. But all of Alice's brother, except for Jack - who was too young- were in the US Navy. The war was very real to our family. There were barrage balloons flying above the palm trees lining W Ave 32 behind our house. Japanese submarines had shelled one of the beaches in So California. Gene was an Air Raid Warden and there were buckets of sand in the basement in case of an incendiary bombing. Everything, it seemed, was rationed and there were special stickers on our car that let Gene buy the gasoline that he needed to get to work. We saved tin, lead and bacon grease for the war effort and I got my picture in the paper for collecting more than a ton of newspapers from around our neighborhood. All of us boys in the neighborhood played war games.

MossAve43 — Our home in Los Angeles at 2708 Moss Avenue, Christmas 1943.

AliceJack44 — Alice with brother Jack on his 16th birthday, 2708 Moss Ave., Los Angeles, 11 May 1944.
In front (L to R:): Roger, Rich, and below, John, and Jim

1944b — Gene and Alice with sons Roger (L) and Richard, 25 Jun 1944, Los Angeles.

1944c — Gene and Alice in Los Angeles, 10 Dec 1944.
Alice wrote on the back:"Feeling just a wee bit silly."

In 1935 the US Department of Agriculture published a Handbook of Small Farm Management called Five Acres and Independence, written by M. G. Kains. The book, reprinted in 1940 (and again in 1973) without the USDA atmospherics, has inspired many in the back-to-the-land movement ever since. The book captured Gene's imagination. The idea that you could gain financial independence by working a five acre farm was very appealing to his independent and romantic nature. Alice's parents were gone leaving only Uncle Mont, an eccentric character living off the grid in rural Riverside County, and her beloved Aunt Mabel.
Aunt Mabel and Uncle Roy had moved in the late 30's to a beautiful farm along side the Mohawk River not far from Springfield, Oregon. So, soon after the war (and rationing) was over, Gene, Alice, Jack and the boys packed some of their belongings into a little green tow trailer and hit the road for Oregon and a new life on a 20 acre farm on Camp Creek Road outside of Springfield just over the hill from Roy and Mable's Silver Creek Ranch.

ORHouse1 — Alice and Gene shortly after arrival in Oregon.

GeneRichRog — Gene with Richard (L) and Roger, 1946.

GeneSons — Gene with his sons, Roger (L), Richard in back. In front Jim (L) and John. 1946.

1946b — Gene with Alice and Jack at the farm on Camp Creek Road, Springfield, Oregon, Aug 1946.

AliceFam46 — Gene and Alice with their boys at the farm, Oregon, Aug, 1946. L to R: Rich, John, Jim, and Roger.

ORHouse — Our home on Camp Creek Road, Springfield, Oregon, after some sprucing up (Oct 1946).

1946a — Jack and Gene at our farm on Camp Creek Road, Springfield, Oregon, Nov 1946.

Jack and Gene with the deer they shot on the hill behind our farm in Oregon in 1946.

In order to suplement the family income, Gene took a job in Springfield, OR, working as a Steam Engineer in what the locals called the "Alcohol Plant".
Springfield was the site of numerous sawmills that served the logging industry in central OR. The Alcohol Plant was an experiment to try to turn the sawmill waste that was normally burned into something of commercial value. The process used high pressure steam in a blast furnace to extract what is called "water gas" from the sawdust and chips. The "water gas" was then used as a feedstock to produce wood alcohol (methanol). Gene's experience with steam driven locomotives made him an ideal Engineer for the Plant.
I wonder if it was widely known in Springfiled at the time that methanol is a highly toxic as well as poisonous substance. Gene is not wearing any protective clothing in these photos taken of him working in the "Alcohol Plant."

AlcoholPlant2 — Gene at work in a plant testing the feasibility of producing methanol from wood biomass. Springfield, OR, 1946.

The dream of independence, even with 20 acres, and in spite of heroic efforts and helpful neighbors, turned out to be unrealistic. To hedge the risks, Gene had not given up his job with the Southern Pacific and was on a leave-of-absence while he was away in Oregon. In the summer of 1947, the family returned to Southern California and Gene resumed full time work as a Locomotive Engineer with the Los Angeles Division of the Southern Pacific Railroad.
During the school year 47/48 the family lived with Gene's sister's family, Jack and Lucille Davies and their children, Dennis, Barbara,and David as well as Grandma Ida Hill, on a one acre farm in San Bernardino near the intersection of Electric Ave and W 41st Street. (At that time, 41st St was at the extreme northern edge of the city of San Bernardino.) The boys attended Holy Rosary elementary school in San Bernardino.
In the spring of 1948, Roger, then in the 8th grade, won a scholarship to Newman High School, a boy's school that had just begun operating in Fontana, CA. So, the family moved into a home at 8657 Newport Avenue in Fontana where Roger and his brothers could walk to school and Gene was only about 10 miles away from the Southern Pacific railyards in Colton, CA.

FontNewprt — Our family moved to this home at 8657 Newport Avenue, Fontana, CA, in 1948. (The old car was not ours and the street numbers were changed sometime after we moved in.)

AliceGene2Apr49 — Gene with Alice on her 37th birthday, 2 Apr 1949, Fontana, CA.

GeneAlice50 — Gene and Alice, 10 Dec 1950, Fontana, CA.

GeneSons50 — Gene and sons, 10 Dec 1950, Fontana, CA, L to R: Roger, John, Jim, and Rich.

In 1951, Gene and Alice took a vacation by Railroad to visit Gene's family in the "Little Egypt" region of Southern Illinois. One of their stops was in New Orleans where they had dinner one night at Antoine's (they talked about that meal for years.) They finished their trip east on the famous Illinois Central train, "THe City of New Orleans".
This part of the Midwestern US is central to the history of our family. All four of my grandparents were born within 35 miles of each other on the banks of the Wabash River in Illinois (White and Wabash Counties) or Indiana (Gibson County.)
The only pictures I have of this trip are pictures of Gene with his aunts, Radie Caroline (Hill) Porter (1881-1985!) and Minnie Catherine (Hill) Gwaltney (1887-1963).

GeneAunts51_1 — Gene with his Aunt Minnie (L) and Aunt Radie. White County, IL, 1951.

GGeneAunts51_2 — Gene with his Aunt Radie (L) and Aunt Minnie. White County, IL, 1951.

AliceMerc — Gene with Alice and John and the new family car, a 1951 Mercury Coupe. Fontana, circa 1952.

AliceChaperon — Gene and Alice in their living room at Fontana before chaperoning the Newman High School Junior/Senior Prom, circa 1952.

AliceFamNov52 — Gene and family, Fontana, 29 Nov 1952. (Roger came home from college for Thanksgiving.)

AliceRoger52a — Gene and Alice with Grandma Ida Hill, Rich, Jim (L) and John. Fontana, 29 Nov 1952.

AliceFamDec54a — Gene, Alice and sons, Fontana, Christmas, 1954.
L to R: Rich, John, Roger, and Jim.

AliceFamDec54 — Gene and family, Fontana, Christmas, 1954.
L to R: Rich, Roger, John, Alice, and Grandma Hill.

In September of 1952 Roger began his freshman year at St Mary's College in Moraga, CA. Shortly after arriving at St Mary's, Roger's cousin, Sylvia McPherson, introduced him to her friend, Lark (Bette Cerf) Ross, who was then a student at Lowell High School in San Francisco. Over the next couple of years they fell in love and, much to the surprise and consternation of their families, on 23 Jun 1955 they eloped and were married by a justice-of-the-peace in Zephyr Cove (Lake Tahoe), Nevada. Later that summer, much to the relief of Gene and Alice, Roger and Bette were re-married at St Dominic's Catholic Church in San Francisco. Alice, Gene and Richard attended the wedding and the reception that followed at Bette's parent's home at 76 Divisadero Street in San Francisco.

AliceRogWedding — Alice and Gene with Richard, Roger and Bette Cerf Hill at their wedding reception in the home of Bette's parents, Dr Herbert and Muriel Dryfoos, in San Francisco, 14 Aug 1955.

AliceFamDec55 — Alice and Gene with John and Rich. Fontana, Christmas, 1955.

AliceGeneCathyDec56 — Alice and Gene with their first grandchild, Catherine Marie Hill, born 29 Nov 1956. Oakland, CA, Christmas, 1956.

AliceBetteCathyDec56 — Alice and Bette with Catherine. Oakland, CA, Christmas, 1956.

AliceXmasc57 — The Hill family, Fontana, Christmas, 1957.
L to R: Gene, Jim, Alice holding Catherine, Bette, John, Roger, Rich.

AliceCathyTeresaJun58 — Alice with Catherine and baby Teresa, Livermore, CA, Jun 1958.

GeneCathyTeresaJun58 — Gene with Catherine and baby Teresa, Livermore, CA, Jun 1958.

AliceGene25th — Alice and Gene celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary at their home in Fontana, 15 Aug 1958.

Livermore59 — Alice and family at Roger and Bette's house in Livermore, CA, Christmas, 1958. L to R: Jim, Rich, Alice, Gene, Roger.

AliceGeneRoy — Alice and Gene with Uncle Roy at Roy and Mable's house, Moreno, CA, May 1959.

1959 — Gene with Alice and his parents, Frank and Ida Hill, Newport Avenue, Fontana, 2 Apr 1961.

Gene and Alice became grandparents for the 3rd time with the birth of Diana Louise Hill on 27 Sep 1961. At that time Roger and Bette had moved into another large house at the corner of Virginia and Spruce Streets on the North side of the UC Campus. (They continued to rent out upstairs bedrooms to UC students.) While living at Spruce Street, Catherine began Kindergarten at Berkeley's Hillside Elementary School
Roger had been accepted as a Graduate Student Research Assistant in the Segré-Chamberlain research group at what is now known as the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. By the summer of 1963 he had completed his course work and his doctoral research in particle physics at the 184 inch Cyclotron.
In August 1963 Roger, Bette and the 3 Hill Sisters moved to the Hyde Park- Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago and Roger took up his first post-doctoral position at the University of Chicago's Enrico Fermi Institute of Nuclear Studies. During his first year at Chicago Roger had the added burden of writing and publishing his doctoral thesis (based on his work at Berkeley) while beginning new experiments at the Argonne National Laboratory's Zero Gradient Synchrotron and at the Fermi Institute's Cyclotron.
In 1964, Gene and Alice drove to Chicago with a travel trailer and took Roger and his family on a much needed vacation to the East Coast. This included a stay at Lake George, NY, where they joined up with brother Richard who was on vacation from the Paulist Seminary in Washington, DC. The vacation went on to include visits to Niagra Falls and Cape Cod.

Gene's movie clip (click: Hill Sisters. Part3) includes scenes of infant Diana, life on Spruce Street, Catherine in first grade, and the 1964 summer vacation.