Hill, John E.

John Edward Hill (1864-1934), professor of engineering, was born in New York City on November 9, 1864. He received a bachelor of science degree in 1884, a civil engineering degree in 1887, and a master of science degree in 1892, all from Rutgers. He received a master of civil engineering degree from Cornell in 1895. He began teaching at Cornell in 1890 as instructor in civil engineering. He came to Brown in 1894 as instructor in charge of the civil engineering courses, which were being placed in a separate department. He was promoted to associate professor in 1895 and to full professor in 1898. He taught courses in surveying, railroad engineering, and sanitation. He acted as consultant in the laying out and construction of Andrews Field. In 1905-06 he was on leave to work for a New York firm on preliminary studies for the sewage disposal plant in Baltimore. His only book, Shades and Shadows and Perspectives, was published in 1896. As an amateur horticulturist he grew more than five hundred varieties of iris. At the time of his death in Providence on November 22, 1934, he was the oldest active member of the faculty.