Legendary medical school dean dies

August 1, 2005

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Dr. Hugh M. “Smiley” Hill, the former associate dean for student and alumni affairs for the University of Florida College of Medicine and a beloved legend among alumni, died Sunday, July 31, in his Gainesville home. He was 81.

“He was a legend, a true legend,” said Dr. Robert Watson, senior associate dean for educational affairs in the College of Medicine. “He was like the spirit of the place.”

Hill, who earned the nickname Smiley while a student at Davidson College in Davidson, N.C., earned a reputation as a one-of-a-kind doctor and teacher who supported students and earned their trust during his 42 years at UF.

He joined the UF faculty in 1959 and within two years had earned the college’s Outstanding Clinical Teacher award, an honor he received 12 times during his career.

To many alumni, the name Dr. Smiley Hill is synonymous with UF’s College of Medicine. He spoke to students at orientation, during their first days as medical students. And except for the inaugural 1960 graduating class, he placed the ceremonial hood on every graduating doctor at UF until he retired in 2001. Hill also administered the Hippocratic Oath to every graduating class between 1966 and 2001.

“He knew every graduate and actually remembered almost all of them,” said Dr. Kenneth Berns, director of the UF Genetics Institute and former dean of the College of Medicine. “He embodies the kind of spirit you like to see around the school of medicine.

“Every medical school needs someone like Smiley Hill.”

But Hill almost never became a doctor, let alone a teacher of doctors. If the young Hill had his way he would have become a wrestler. A high school injury, however, knocked him out of the sport he loved and World War II led him into a career he never imagined.

During the war, Hill was chosen to receive training to be a surgical technician. He treated troops wounded during the Battle of the Bulge and risked his life to save an injured soldier from drowning, an action that earned him the Soldier’s Medal of Heroism. His war experiences also sparked a lifelong love of medicine.

After the war, Hill finished his studies at Davidson College and in 1948, he entered medical school at Johns Hopkins University, where he also completed his residency.

Hill originally planned to pursue private practice in obstetrics and gynecology but decided instead to take a position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1957. Students recognized Hill’s talent quickly and honored him with his first teaching award.

He left Chapel Hill in 1959 for the UF College of Medicine, just three years after it opened. Four years later, he was promoted to assistant dean for student affairs. He was promoted again in 1973 to associate dean for student and alumni affairs.

At UF, Hill’s commitment to medical students surfaced quickly. Students honored him with the first Hippocratic Award for Teaching Excellence in 1969. He received this award three more times during his career here. Students even named a new award for him in 1970.

He also delivered many of his students’ children and was a godfather to three of them.

Hill was a member of numerous societies, including the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the American Medical Association and the Johns Hopkins Medical and Surgical Association. He also served as vice president of the Alumni Association of the Johns Hopkins College of Medicine and published articles in scientific journals such as the Southern Medical Journal and the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

But throughout his career, those who knew him say it was the students he treasured most.

“He was like a combination of teacher and friend,” said Watson who will give the eulogy at Hill’s funeral Wednesday. “You don’t find that too often.”

Hill is survived by his wife, Ann Lazonby Hill, of Gainesville; and daughter, Grace, of Washington, D.C.

Funeral services for Hill will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 3, at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 100 N.E. 1st St., Gainesville.