Hill: A legacy of leadership, service

Veteran, entrepreneur, community leader, former mayor

When you ask Don Hill, Taylor’s first African American mayor, what inspired his lifetime of leadership and public service, his answer is fairly simple: “I just love people.”

“I have learned to do things. I would see something that needed to be done and think, ‘I could do it’ … If we have a problem somewhere, I always try to find a resource,” said Hill, 87, who retired in 2016 after 30 years on the City Council — 11 as mayor and four as mayor pro-tem.

Former Mayor Brandt Rydell, who served on the dais with Hill from 2012-16, said he benefited greatly from the veteran city leader’s example and wisdom.

“Certainly he was a wealth of institutional knowledge from the city of Taylor municipal government perspective, but also in his understanding and knowledge of the community and history of the community,” Rydell said. “He would provide a perspective that we were very fortunate to have, and he was very good about making sure that we all felt like we were part of a team and working together.”

Donald Ray Hill was born in the “Oklahoma Edition” section of South Taylor and delivered at home by noted African American physician James L. Dickey on Dec. 11, 1937.

Despite the segregation and racial discrimination of the time, Hill has many fond memories of attending the all-Black Blackshear Elementary School and O.L Price High School, from which he graduated in 1956.

“We had a beautiful connection with the teachers and the parents,” Hill said. “The teachers would visit your home if you didn’t do right or if something was wrong.”

From age 6, Hill ran errands for people around the neighborhood, especially for those from his Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where he still is a member and a leader.

“I would get all the nickels and dimes and run to the store,” Hill said. “For some reason, everybody liked me, and that’s just the way it was.”

During high school, Hill worked from 5-10 a.m. driving a scrapmetal truck to and from Austin for his neighbor and mentor, John “Jimbo” Henry Gray, a local businessman.

At the time, Gray ran a successful barbecue joint, a junkyard, a taxicab business and much more.

“He was a real entrepreneur, and he could count money better than anyone I know,” Hill recalled. “He had the respect of all over town.”

Through Gray’s example, Hill said he learned how to strive to do his best, while never letting his grades slip.

“I learned my work ethic,” he said. “He ran his junkyard, and I would just watch what the others would do, and I would say “I could do that better.’” After graduation in 1956, Hill served in the Marine Corps for six years; three years active duty and three in the Reserve with an honorable discharge as a Lance Corporal.

In the early 1960s, Hill returned to Taylor to marry future community leader Leslie Hill, now 81, and raise four children. One early job involved serving as a helper cooking rocks in a rotary kiln — the process of heating stones in a kiln to reach high temperatures — for Austin White Lime Co.

Eventually Hill was promoted to run the kiln himself as a fireman — a job previously only held by Anglos.

“I was a helper, but I would get my work done in the back, and I would … watch the fireman, and he taught me how to run the kiln,” Hill said.

In 1969, Hill was hired to work for the Williamson-Burnet County Opportunities Office in Taylor, launching several community centers in Taylor, Georgetown, Bartlett and Round Rock, as well as other initiatives, with the help of volunteers from President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Volunteers in Service to America program.

Highlights of Hill’s 27-year tenure with WBCO include establishing county Meals on Wheels programs, organizing clothing distribution and food pantries, weatherizing people’s homes, helping folks sign up for Medicaid and other federal programs, offering enrichment opportunities for youth, starting the United Counties Federal Credit Union, launching local Head Start programs, overseeing the management of Robinson Pool, and much more, before serving as director of field operations for the Capital Area Rural Transportation System.

Laverne Caldwell, whom Hill hired at the credit union, said she learned how to be a good manager through Hill’s style of patient mentorship.

“He was encouraging,” Caldwell said. “He was a ‘macro manager.’ He gave me the leeway to do this as long as I met the requirements. He did not micromanage me. He did the opposite.”

She added, “If he thought you were off track he would let you know. He would say, ‘I think you might want to consider that,’ but he didn’t make a decision for you.”

Her husband Larry Caldwell, the senior pastor at Mt. Zion Baptist Church of Thorndale, agrees.

“He has just an allout loving attitude,” he said. “He loves people and he loves to help people.”

In the early 1980s, Hill assisted local leader Gummi Gonzalez with a community-led legal effort to bring singlemember districts to Taylor to pave the way for more equal representation on the previously all-Anglo council, including his own first successful candidacy to represent District 1 in 1986.

During his career, Hill spent a great deal of time volunteering, including for the city’s Planning and Zoning Committee, Housing Authority, the board of the Texas Municipal League, the Taylor Economic Development Corp., and the Greater Taylor Chamber of Commerce — just to name a few.

In 2003, Hill was named the Taylor Texas Citizen of the Year, 51 years after Dickey, and just five years before his wife was given the same honor — in addition to being awarded county and state recognitions.

“Leslie and I were one of only two couples since the awards began in the 1940s to ever receive that,” Hill said.

Rydell said the Hills are a shining example of leadership for he and his wife, Julie Rydell—as well as the entire city.

“They are just a great couple who have devoted themselves to this community,” Rydell said. “The love they have for Taylor, and the things they have done to help people in this community to help advance this city… We couldn’t have better role models than them.”