James David Hillier

He was born on April 10, 1947, to June and Jack Hillier in Long Branch, NJ. His family moved to Walpole when Jim was 10. Jim loved New Hampshire. He learned to golf at Hooper Golf Course. He started as a caddy and later worked on the course summers. His family called him Jimmy, his high school friends called him George, from Of Mice and Men, his classmates at Harvard, class of 1969, called him Jimmy Dave, his grandchildren called him Tartar, and he was just Jim to his wife of 55 years, Nancy. They met at Walpole High School, class of 1965. Jim graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1969 with a BS in biology. They decided to elope to Elkton Maryland in August 1969 instead of going to Woodstock.

Jim taught junior high science at Newfound high school in Bristol NH for one year. Then they camped their way to California in their 1969 VW bug where they bicycled the coast, settling in Desert Hot Springs for the winter where they worked at natural hot springs spa, living in their 1965 Ford truck camper. They homesteaded in West Virginia and then returned to New Hampshire where Jim was a caretaker of a farm in Tamworth and where their first daughter Molly was born. They returned to West Virginia, and Jim received a Masters Degree in Forestry at WVU in Morgantown. Their second daughter Katie was born there. They returned to NH, and Jim built a house on a piece of land from Nancy’s fathers farm where they lived for almost fifty years.

Jim taught science at the Claremont VoTech College and worked summers at Pine Grove Springs Country Club in Spofford. He completed the UMass Winter School for Turf Managers certification. He eventually became the major shareholder and turned the golf course into a very challenging course where many people learned to play and love the game of golf. He tried to make a golf course the average person could afford and a fun place to be. It was the love of his life for over 37 years working there with his dog Patrick by his side, maintaining it and building several new holes, the extremely difficult 3rd hole and the 4th. His wife, children and oldest grandchild, Diego, all worked there. Winters he ran the Brattleboro Outing Club cross country ski center. He brought cross country skiing to the Westmoreland school.

Jim and the girls planted Christmas trees on their land when the girls were young. Jim told them it would be for their college education. He sold hundreds of trees over the years from the Butterfield Hill Christmas tree farm. Jim also planted an orchard of old varieties of apples.

Jim was very active in the NH Golf Course Superintendents Association for the 37 years he was a golf superintendent, serving on the board in many roles, recruiting, education, planning conferences and president. He was instrumental in setting up the NHGCSA scholarship to bring young people into the profession.

He was president of the Westmoreland Boosters Club and coached the Westmoreland girls’ softball and basketball teams for the years when his girls were in school there. He was the president of the Westmoreland Lions Club and sang in the Westmoreland United Church choir.

Over the years Jim built many things, treehouses for his grandchildren, he helped them with school projects, many home improvement projects and his last big project with a gazebo he built as a meditation spot. He was a jack of all trades.

When Jim sold the golf course in 2015, they bought a small house in Pawleys Island, SC on Founders Club golf course where Jim worked part time during the winter, and they were finally able to play golf and not just work. During the summers in NH, he built and maintained a driving range out in the hayfield for friends.

Jim will be missed for his intelligence, his sense of humor, quick wit and love of the outdoors. He was diagnosed with bipolar, a hereditary disease, when he was 30 and dealt with it his whole life managing to work and lead a successful life until three years ago when he became sick. His suffering is now over, and we like to think of him working at the big golf course in the sky.

Jim is survived by his wife Nancy of Westmoreland, his daughters Molly Hillier of Keene and Katie Evans and her husband Damon of Wake Forest, NC, five grandchildren, Jadira and Diego Betancourt, Damon Jr., Jasmine and Elijah Evans, his brothers Jeff and his wife Linda of Philadelphia PA, and Jay and his wife Billie of Mangum, OK, his brother/sister in laws, Jeff and Bobbi Clapp of South Portland ME, and nieces and nephews, Laura, Amy, Cynthia, Erin, Greg, Emily, Justin, Logan and Lily. He is predeceased by his older brother John and his nephew Matt, and his two good friends Bruce Mitchell of WV and Mark Hayward of Westmoreland.

There will be a memorial service in the Spring, to be announced.

Donations may be made in Jim’s name to the NHGCSA scholarship program, PO Box2691, Concord NH 03302.

The whole family knows he will be happy not to live through another Trump presidency.