We have a titanic hero in Southwest Florida.
He’s Bob Hilliard, who turns 101 on June 25.
Mark that Thursday as what should be a statewide holiday.
Hilliard is consequential in a life that began in New York City. With World War II raging, he completed Army basic training near Jacksonville, Florida, fought in Europe, then landed in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Boston for careers in journalism, theater, government and academia. He came down to Florida again at Sanibel Island, and, after Hurricane Ian, Fort Myers.
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He never quits, just as he dug deep when the Nazis came on as brutally as the Battle of Bulge’s deep freeze in Belgium.
“What I remember most,” he says, “is the terrible cold winter and having to use TNT to blast foxholes … for shelter and sleep. And I got frozen feet.”
He was just 19, an Army private hit by mortar shrapnel, from which he overcame and received the Purple Heart.
That was 1945, a few months before America and our Allies clinched victory on the Continent.
What Hilliard experienced at the Bulge was the bloodiest battle for American forces on the Western Front during the Second World War. But he survived and has thrived the 81 years since.
Thrived? That’s putting it mildly.
He has a sharp wife, JoAnn Reece, and two brilliant children, Mark Hilliard, a military historian, and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, one of the country’s leading civil liberties lawyers as co-founder and head of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund.
Also in the past eight decades, he has produced 50 books and multiple stage shows. Even musicals, one of which, “Piccadilly,” my wife and I enjoyed at Fort Myers two years ago.
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“Piccadilly,” obviously set in London, sings of love after WWII.
Can you imagine composing not only a screenplay, but also music and lyrics? I can’t, but then I’m not Bob, the Florida Firebrand. He burns with a fervor.
The Guardians of Democracy, a group of citizen journalists and activists, felt Hilliard’s heat from years of demonstrations and decided to honor him with its Lifetime Award.
Bob responded with a message captured by Florida Weekly’s Roger Williams: “When one gets to an advanced age … much of one’s thinking turns to remembrances of the past. One wonders whether they have fulfilled their obligation as human beings to make life better for as many others as possible. My mantra has been ‘be ashamed to die until you’ve made the world a little better than you found it.’ Your generous award — the Guardian of Democracy Lifetime Award — gives me hope that I am fulfilling my mantra, my goals in life. It buoys my spirits and supports my continuing commitment to our mutual fight for democracy.”
It’s a pleasure to know Bob Hilliard, who’s walked the Earth longer than anyone I’ve known.
Think of what he’s lived through: the 1927 Yankees, the Great Depression, the Berlin Airlift, Bobby Thomson’s Shot Heard Round the World, the Dodgers and Giants leaving New York for California, JFK’s murder, Joe Namath’s Super Bowl, the moon landings, the Miracle Mets, Secretariat, the Bicentennial, the stock market’s rocket since 1982, the Berlin Wall’s tumble, Buster Douglas’ shocker over Mike Tyson, 9/11, America coming up on 250.
America250? It’ll also be great to see Hilliard101.
Happy birthday, Big Guy.
Image: Bob Hilliard and fellow newspaper guys Jeff Cull and Bucky Fox in April in Fort Myers, Florida. Courtesy photo
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Bucky Fox is an author and editor in Florida.