About Us

Dr. Hill began a career in surgery by training at the New York Hospital‑Cornell Medical Center and the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women’s Hospital) in Boston.  He joined the faculty of the University of Colorado in 1966 as an Instructor in Surgery and he rose to become Associate Professor.  He then was appointed Professor of Surgery at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri; and then Professor and Chairman of Surgery at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.  In 1981, he was recruited to become Professor and Chief of Surgical Oncology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School in Newark, New Jersey.   At that institution he also held appointments as Professor of Preventive Medicine and American Cancer Society of Clinical Oncology.   Dr. Hill retired from surgery in 1996 and was appointed Emeritus Professor of Surgery at the UMDNJ‑New Jersey Medical School, now Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School.  From 1997-1999, he was a member of the executive team at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, N.J.   In 1999 he earned the M.A. in history from Rutgers University, Newark, N.J., and in 2005 he received the D.Litt. in history from Drew University, Madison, N.J.  In 2000-01, Dr. Hill was an Adjunct Professor of History at Kean University in Union, New Jersey.  He is also a Clinical Professor of Surgery with tenure at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City and Adjunct Professor of Surgery at the Hebert Medical School of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland. 

Dr. Hill is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School, as a participant in the Program for Health Systems Management V in 1976.  He was a Fellow in Molecular Biology at Princeton University in 1988, and he has been a guest lecturer and visiting professor at many institutions in the United States and abroad. 

Dr. Hill is the author of more than 160 scientific reports, 20 papers in the humanities, and 22 book chapters.  He has given more than 500 hundred lectures on a wide variety of topics.  He is the author/editor of more than twenty books, including Leprosy in Five Young Men; Outpatient Surgery, Clinical Oncology; Edison’s Environment: Invention and Pollution in the Career of Thomas Edison; Intimate Relationships:  Church and State in the U.S. and Liberia, 1917-1947; and Proceed to Peshawar: The Story of a U.S. Naval Intelligence Mission on the Afghan Border, 1943.  Seven genealogical works: John Saxe, Loyalist; HILL: The Ferry Keeper’s Family; Western Pilgrims; Quakers and Puritans; Fundy to Chesapeake; and American Dreams.  The latter four volumes were summarized in a tetralogy entitled American Dreams.  His recent books include “Dearest Barb” from Karachi, 1943-45; Three Men in a Jeep Named “Ma Kabul”; The Home Front; Rolling with Patton; Prairie Daughter; Health Matters: A New View of Human History; and a forthcoming book, A Lesson in Reality. 

Hill is the owner of Khyber Pass Productions, which optioned his book, Proceed to Peshawar, to make a movie entitled Khyber Pass.  The movie would be a biopic or documentary, or possibly a podcast, based on the life of Major Gordon Enders, who is one of the leading characters in the book.  For more information about the film, see IMDb.com, and search for George J. Hill.

As an undergraduate at Yale, Dr. Hill was a member of the Yale Rifle Team and Treasurer of the Yale Outing Club.  He was a member of Mory’s Association, of Dwight Hall – the Y.M.C.A. at Yale – and of Alpha Phi Omega, a service fraternity.   As a percussionist for the Yale Band, he was elected to represent that organization on Yale Key, a service organization.  At Harvard Medical School, he was a member of the Lancet Club, selected to be a Prosector in Anatomy, and he was elected to the Boylston Medical Society.  After graduation, he was appointed Research Fellow in Surgery and Teaching Fellow in Anatomy.  At Harvard College, he was a Member of the Board of Freshman Advisors and Resident Tutor at Dudley House from 1958-1961. 

Dr. Hill was Chairman of the Committee on Teaching at the University of Colorado, when he was a member of the University Faculty Council.  In St. Louis, he was President of the Medical Staff and Acting Medical Director at St. Louis City Hospital and Chairman of the Washington University Cancer Program.   In Huntington, W.Va., at Marshall University School of Medicine, he was Associate Dean, Chairman of the Department of Surgery, and Chief of Surgery at the Veterans Administration Hospital.  In Newark, N.J., he was president of the Faculty of the New Jersey Medical School and he was the Founding President of the Newark Chapter of Sigma Xi-The Scientific Research Society.  He was president of the Newark Chapter of the American Association of University Professors of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and co-President of the Rutgers Chapter of the AAUP.  He received the Faculty Member of the Year Award from the New Jersey Medical School Faculty and was elected as a Faculty Member of the Alpha Phi Omega Honor Medical Society.   

Hill has been president of the Academy of Medicine of New Jersey and of the American Association for Cancer Education.  He was also president of the Essex County Medical Society and Secretary of the Medical Society of New Jersey.  Dr. Hill was a trustee of Sterling College, Craftsbury Common, Vermont, from 1990-2002, and he was Interim President of the college in 1996.  His honors include the Ethicon Silver Medal for “Movies of Spectacular Operations” from the American College of Surgeons, the Gorgas Medal of the Association of Military Surgeons of the U.S. for contributions to preventive medicine, the Margaret Hay Edwards Achievement Medal from the American Association for Cancer Education, and the St. George Medal from the American Cancer Society.  In 2010 he received the Delta Award for Community Service from the Essex County Medical Society, and the Robert E. Burt Award for Scouting from the National Society, Sons of the American Revolution.  He received the 2012 David L. Cowen Award from the Medical History Society of New Jersey for achievement in the history of medicine; the Russell C. Hill Award for his contributions to Learning for Life from the Northern New Jersey Council, Boy Scouts of America; and the Founders Award from the Essex County Medical Society in 2015.  He was made an Honorary Colonel in the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels in 2014, and he received a Finalist’s Medal for Proceed to Peshawar in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, on 27 May 2015. 

Hill is an Honorary Member of the Oncology Nursing Society, of the National Assembly of the American Cancer Society, and of the Medical Staff of Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, N.J.  In 2014, he was also awarded Honorary Membership in the National Society of the Sons of the American Colonists.  He was inducted in 2017 as an Honorary Member of the Heritage Society Community of America. 

Dr. Hill was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal upon his retirement as a Captain in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Navy Reserve.  Among his other medals and decorations are the Outstanding Service Medal of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences; the New Jersey Distinguished Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal (3 awards); Vietnam Service Medal with one bronze campaign star; and the Armed Forces Reserve Medal with mobilization “M” and silver hourglass device.  His unit awards include ribbons for the Joint Meritorious Unit Commendation, Navy Unit Commendation, Meritorious Unit Commendation, and two Civic Actions ribbons with Palm and Frame (Gallantry Color and First Class Color) from the Republic of Viet Nam.  He is entitled to wear the Navy and Marine Corps Parachute Badge, the USMC Rifle Expert Medal, and the Gold Wreath Award with star from the Navy Recruiting Command.

Dr. Hill became a Boy Scout at the age of 12 and he reached the rank of Eagle Scout in 1949.  He continued his activity in Scouting as an adult and he has been a member of the Executive Board of Boy Scout Councils in West Virginia, New Jersey, and Maryland since 1976.  He was President of the Tri-State Area Council in West Virginia in 1980-81.  He was a member of the National Council, BSA, from 1968-1993.  He is now a member of the Executive Board of the Baltimore Area Council, BSA.  He has received the Silver Beaver, Silver Antelope, Vigil Honor, Distinguished Eagle Scout, and National William E. Spurgeon III awards from the Boy Scouts of America.  He received the “Good Scout” Award at the 2012 Northern New Jersey Health Care Awards Dinner. 

Dr. Hill is a past Senior Warden and Assistant Treasurer of the Church of the Holy Innocents in West Orange, N.J.  He has also been a member of the governing board of the Metropolitan Red Cross Chapter in New Jersey as well as local, state and national boards of the American Cancer Society.  He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Crossroads of the American Revolution Association from 2009-2010, and he was a member of the Dean’s Cabinet of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers-Newark from 2010-2017.  He is an Emeritus Member of the Board of Trustees of the Frost Valley YMCA, and an Emeritus Trustee of Sterling College.  He held various offices, including Vice President and Treasurer as a member of the Board of Trustees of the New Jersey State Opera from 2000-2017.   He was appointed by the Governor of New Jersey to be a Founding Member of the New Jersey State Cancer Commission, and he served for many years as a consultant on cancer to the New Jersey State Department of Health.

Dr. Hill was elected to membership in the National Gavel Society as the Governor General of the Descendants of Founders of New Jersey.  He has also been Governor General of the Order of the First Families of New Hampshire.  In 2020, he was elected as Surgeon General of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.  He became a member of the Mayflower Society in 1995.  He has since become a member of more than 60 hereditary and lineage societies, and he is a present or past officer in many of them.  All four of his grandparents have colonial-era ancestors.   He has two proven lines to Royal ancestors in England.  In 2017, he was elected to Honorary Membership in the Hereditary Society of the United States of America, and his biography appears on the HSC website.  

Dr. Hill was a member of the Council of the Society of Medical Consultants to the Surgeons General of the United States.  He is a Life Member of the Marine Corps League, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Association of the United States Navy, and of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States.