The Hills
In the 40 years since they were married Kathleen and Gerald Hill have built a reputation for accomplishment in writing more than 30 books and articles, political leadership, public service, and as award-winning university professors, mostly as a team. They have also raised successful children, coached sports, traveled extensively and Gerald has practiced law in both San Francisco’s financial district and Sonoma.
Even before being introduced to each other by Dianne Feinstein, each had displayed leadership qualities. Born and raised in Berkeley, by age 15 Kathleen Thompson was America’s record holder in swimming the breaststroke after surviving polio. She graduated from the University of California, received a diploma from the Sorbonne in Paris, was recruited as an intern by the Peace Corps where she was soon Director of its Speakers Bureau and was sent by Sargent Shriver to the White House to take over projects of Mrs. Kennedy when the Kennedy’s baby, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, died.
Kathleen was awarded a fellowship in public affairs by the prestigious Coro Foundation, with assignments to business, labor, government and a senatorial campaign where she became scheduler. Then she began work in public relations for major San Francisco restaurants including Trader Vic’s, a speech writer for official city host Cyril Magnin, wrote a column for San Francisco Magazine, worked on campaigns for Mayor Alioto and a gubernatorial candidate in Indiana, and was editor of both the San Francisco Symphony and Opera programs.
Gerald grew up in Sausalito, graduated from Stanford where he was elected to the student executive committee, was chairman of the student constitution and bylaws committee and played intramural football and softball. He taught journalism before he entered Hastings College of the Law of the University of California, where he was the lead for the Moot Court team, and earned a Juris Doctor degree. He was immediately hired as manager of the first winning campaign of Congressman Clem Miller. Then he became an associate in a Montgomery Street law firm, and three years later was appointed Executive Director of the Governor’s Housing Commission, became an adviser to the City of Buenos Aires, and drafted the California Housing and Community Development Act. He was elected President of the California Democratic Council, the party’s volunteer organization of 40,000 members, was state chair of the presidential campaign of Senator Eugene McCarthy, and delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
After their wedding, the Hills bought a house on Mount Tamalpais above Mill Valley. Kathleen was Executive Director of the 25th Anniversary of the United Nations, and was appointed Vice Chair for Activities of the Democratic State Committee. Both Hills had leadership roles in Jerry Brown’s first campaign for Governor. In 1975 they settled in Sonoma where Gerald moved his law practice. Kathleen was soon elected president of the Sonoma Community Center, appointed to the county Grand Jury, vice chair of the St. Francis School Board, member and then chair of two city commissions, the Board of the Boys and Girls Club, the Vintage Festival, and director of the CYO basketball program. Jerry was appointed and re-elected to the Sonoma Valley Hospital Board, chosen chair of the School Facilities Committee, on three civic committees and was President of the Kiwanis Club of Sonoma Plaza.
When Philippine President Ferdinand Marcus declared martial law and seized media owned by friends, the Hills succeeded in obtaining a Congressional investigation and hearings of human rights violations in the Philippines, where Jerry testified. Upon the murder of opposition leader Ninoy Aquino as he deplaned when returning to Manila, the Hills quickly obtained evidence and wrote a best-selling self-published book, Aquino Assassination, an international exposé which proved the killer was connected with Marcos. When Marcos was forced to resign, threats to the Hills prompted the FBI to request constant police protection for the Hill family.
In the 1980s, the Hills began writing jointly almost fulltime. The Real Life Dictionary of American Politics, which was an expansion of Kathleen’s master’s thesis for her MA in political psychology from Sonoma State University, was published by General Publishing Group. That was followed by the Real Life Dictionary of the Law, which the Hills have licensed to law.com for almost a decade and is the most used legal dictionary on the Internet. Subsequent printed versions include People’s Law Dictionary and Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary.
The Hills were both named Visiting Scholars at U.C. Berkeley’s Institute for Governmental Studies and presented studies to the Canadian Studies program at U.C., and other organizations, including the International Political Science Association annual convention. In 1992 they became the first married couple both elected delegates to a Democratic National Convention. They took turns being elected to the Democratic State Executive Committee and Kathleen was elected Assembly District party chairperson and vice chair.
The Hills entered a new phase of their writing career with a self-published “Hill Guide” entitled Sonoma Valley, The Secret Wine Country which was featured on the cover of Wine Spectator and received positive reviews. It was followed by Victoria and Vancouver Island, when travel book publisher Globe Pequot offered to publish their Hill Guides series which included new titles on Napa Valley, Northwest Wine Country, Monterey and Carmel and Santa Barbara and the Central Coast. There have been three to five editions of each. Their strengths include regular returns to each region, careful organization, lively texts, personal interviews, recipes and 60-page regional histories.
The Hills served as adjunct professors of American Government and Politics at the University of British Columbia, and were called back for alternative semesters for four and a half years. At UBC the Hills received a teaching award voted by alumni and students, and their book on Victoria and Vancouver Island was chosen the leading regional book written by faculty. The Hills also taught American Government and Politics at the University of Victoria and co-authored The Encyclopedia of Federal Agencies and Commissions for Facts on File Publishers, which also published an extended version of The Dictionary of American Politics.
Returning full time to California in 2003 the Hills have been adjunct professors at Sonoma State teaching courses on The Politics of Health Care and the History of Food and Wine, and in the Life Long Learning program, including analyses of each biannual election and conducting candidate forums. They were coordinators for Howard Dean’s presidential candidacy in California, conducting 20 workshops for volunteers throughout the state.
Kathleen hosted the weekly Kathleen Hill Show on KSVY, for which she was twice voted best radio host and Gerald conducted Hill on History. Both wrote columns in the Sonoma Valley Sun, but eventually resigned and the KSVY management cancelled their radio programs.
For two years Kathleen has been Food and Wine Editor of the Sonoma Index-Tribune newspaper and Sonoma Magazine. She writes her extremely popular weekly column for the I-T, simply entitled KATHLEEN HILL, is a correspondent for the Boston Globe and airs two radio food columns on A Thousand Cooks.com, entitled “San Francisco Bay Area Food and Wine” and “Food News With a Twist.”
Gerald serves as historian for the Index-Tribune. Currently both are writing new books. Kathleen’s latest book is Careers in the Food and Wine Industry, issued in October, 2010. She has just completed almost two years organization of student gardens in all public schools in Sonoma Valley.
