William Kirkwood Hile

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:30 a.m. Monday, November 5th, in the chapel of St. Gabriel Church, with Fr. Frank O’Rourke officiating. Mr. Hile’s family will receive friends at the church following the Mass.

Bill was born November 20, 1918 at St. Mary’s Hospital in Meadville, Pennsylvania to Fred and Velma Stack Hile. After living in several places as a boy, including Brooklyn, NY near Ebbets’ field, then the home of the Dodgers, and meeting Babe Ruth through a neighbor while living in Detroit, Bill developed a lifelong love of baseball and, as he became a teenager, golf. He graduated from Stroudsburg (PA) High School and entered into the strenuous four year B.S. Electrochemical Engineering program at Pennsylvania State University. During that time, however, he played baseball, was a member of the Penn State Players and Thespians—where he met Mary Lou—the ROTC band (alto horn) and the Blue Band, the Penn State marching band. After graduating from Penn State in 1940, Bill worked for Westinghouse.

In 1941, he married Mary Louise Trunk on George Washington’s birthday and later that year was accepted as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy. During WWII, Bill fought in both the North Atlantic and Pacific theaters on various destroyer escorts, the latter being part of the 7th fleet, escorting a convoy on the USS Bunch to Tokyo for the Japanese surrender in November 1945. Upon return to the US, he became inactive, holding the rank of Lt. Cmdr., and was appointed to command training on the Navy’s school ship in the Great Lakes.

Bill moved his family from Connecticut to Charlotte in 1955, when he established his manufacturers’ representative business, W.K. Hile Company, Inc. and later added the distributor division, Hile Equipment Company, both which specialized in industrial control systems. He also joined the then fledgling Carmel Country Club so he could play golf immediately. In 1965, Bill became a registered Professional Engineer and in the 70s, joined John’s Island Golf Club as well as Bent Pine Golf Club in Vero Beach, Florida, where he and Mary Lou spent many winters until the mid-90s. Golf also took them on extensive travels around the world, often in the People to People program when they were hosted by different countries. He was also a member of the Southern Seniors and Tar Heel Seniors Golf Associations. From 1981, when Hile first installed its first computer system, he spent many hours customizing software to suit the business as there was nothing available at the time. He continued to do so until his retirement in 2001. Through the years, Bill was active in the IEEE, ISA and Professional Engineers association.

He is survived by his wife of 71 years, Mary Louise; a son, Kirk Hile and his wife, Paula Perry; a daughter, Diane Hile Johnston; and two grandchildren: Kristin Johnston Brooks, of Chicago IL, and Dr. Kirkwood Johnston, of Houston, TX; as well as many nieces and nephews.

His brother, Bruce Hile, preceded him in death.

In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations be made to St. Gabriel Catholic Church, 3016 Providence Road, Charlotte, NC 28211.