thedrifter
09-08-08, 08:37 AM
From the few, the proud, a higher responsibility
Published:Monday, September 8, 2008
By Linda M. Linonis
After careers in the military and business, the Rev. Solomon P. Hill takes on a new challenge as a church pastor.
YOUNGSTOWN — He was awarded a Bronze Star when he served in the Marine Corps, where he rose to lieutenant colonel.
As an executive with Marriott International Inc., he was awarded multiple honors for a successful welfare-to-work program he developed.
The awards have special meaning for the Rev. Solomon P. Hill because of the accomplishments they represent.
But it’s the rewards of the Rev. Mr. Hill’s call to the ministry he holds most dear. It was a long and winding path before Mr. Hill said he acknowledged in words and actions what he knew in his heart and soul: God was calling him.
“Faith was a part of my life,” Mr. Hill said, adding his father was a pastor and he grew up in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. “But I went ahead and lived life.”
As a young man in the early 1960s, he was asked by a friend to lend moral support at a recruitment site. The friend never showed up, but something motivated Mr. Hill to take a test for the Marine Corps. The details of his entry into the “few, the proud, the Marines” was fraught with roadblocks of discrimination.
Mr. Hill later found out he had a “high score” on the test and a Marine said to him, “I never expected you to be black.”
When he entered Marine Corps officers’ training school at Quantico, Va., there were six blacks among the 300 would-be Marines. “I was the only [black] to graduate,” he recalled, when he became a second lieutenant. Another comment was made about his achievement when an officer told him, “You deserve a higher score but this is all I can give you.”
When he was sent to Camp LeJeune, N.C., he was the only black officer there. “In some ways, I felt like the Jackie Robinson of the Marines,” Mr. Hill said, referring to the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era.
“There was all kinds of stuff ... name-calling and no salutes,” he said. He remembered soldiers crossing the street to avoid saluting a black officer. “But I crossed too,” he said. “It wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.”
Mr. Hill endured, and with grace, rose above the situations.
Mr. Hill was a first lieutenant during his first tour of duty in Vietnam, 1965-66; a captain during his second in 1970. “I was an infantry company commander. I led troops into combat,” he said. “I believe God was involved. There’s 200 in a company, and during that time, I only lost two men,” he said.
Though he had a good service record, he still faced the race issue as a black officer. But he used subtle ways to defuse it. Whites, blacks and Latinos braided white, black and brown shoelaces and wore them on their wrists. “I wore all three,” Mr. Hill said.
He also arranged some football games so troops could “let off some steam.” Having played football in college, Mr. Hill said he could “handle himself” when shots came his way.
Gen. Widdeke, known as “Texas Pete,” would inspect the troops, Mr. Hill said. “Even if my uniform was dirty, I would shine my shoes,” he said. The general took notice; Mr. Hill went on to become the two-star general’s staff secretary. “Everyone had to go through me to get to him,” said Mr. Hill, who is in his 60s.
The general knew there were race issues and he asked Mr. Hill to address them. “I put together some information I saw in Ebony magazine and some other black history,” Mr. Hill said of the program on racism he developed. “I would first come out as a spit-shined Marine,” he said, then he would change into a Dashiki, a colorful African shirt. “I would talk about being a Marine no matter what clothes I wore,” he said.
As Mr. Hill’s Marine Corps career progressed, he also coordinated the National Minority Officers’ Recruitment Program.
Later, an ironic coincidence put him face-to-face with the Marine who had initially thwarted his entry into the corps by misdirecting his paperwork. “I was the camp commander at Camp Courtney in Okinawa, Japan,” Mr. Hill said, and noted his dual role also was battalion commander. “There were some 2,500 people under me.
“One day we had a formation and I saw that Marine. He had only advanced one rank. I walked by him and asked, ‘Do you know who I am?’ And he said, ‘Yes,’ and I kept walking,” Mr. Hill recalled. Mr. Hill never sought him out. “But God provided me with that opportunity,” he said.
Mr. Hill recalled the great responsibility associated with his last assignment as a U.S. delegate with Work Group 5 for NATO. He served at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and traveled frequently to alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
Mr. Hill said his assignment involved communication systems. “They’re classified issues,” he said.
But, he noted, this service made him keenly aware of the power and nuances of words in different languages. “Finding the right word sometimes made the difference between a proposal being approved or rejected,” he said.
When Mr. Hill retired from the Marine Corps in 1984, he prepared for the private sector by taking a class and reading business literature. His methodical approach helped him land an executive position with Marriott International Corp., which took him to Washington, D.C.; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Atlanta; and finally Cleveland, as the director of human resources. There, he introduced “Pathways to Independence,” a welfare-to-work program that helped some 250 people get full-time employment with Marriott.
“Marriott had funds for the program, but I never used that money. I learned how to get state and federal grants,” he said.
Though his business career was still going strong, Mr. Hill said he felt a pull toward the ministry. “I fasted and prayed and asked the Lord what to do,” he said. He noted that he and his wife, Mary, started attending St. Paul United Methodist Church. “God sent me to that church. If felt I was home.”
In another instance, “a friend of my wife, Mary, told me I was being called. Something told me to listen,” he said, noting his wife had also recognized his calling. “I remember as a boy feeling that God told me to live a good life and he would show me wondrous things. He was true to his word.
“Now it was my turn ... to go into the ministry,” he said. “I had grown in faith and it was time to step out in faith.”
He attended the Methodist Theological School in Ohio and earned a master of divinity degree. Mr. Hill became pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church, 1413 Belmont Ave., on July 1, 2005. The church is marking its 90th anniversary Sept. 13 with a banquet and Sept. 14 with a service.
Ellie
Published:Monday, September 8, 2008
By Linda M. Linonis
After careers in the military and business, the Rev. Solomon P. Hill takes on a new challenge as a church pastor.
YOUNGSTOWN — He was awarded a Bronze Star when he served in the Marine Corps, where he rose to lieutenant colonel.
As an executive with Marriott International Inc., he was awarded multiple honors for a successful welfare-to-work program he developed.
The awards have special meaning for the Rev. Solomon P. Hill because of the accomplishments they represent.
But it’s the rewards of the Rev. Mr. Hill’s call to the ministry he holds most dear. It was a long and winding path before Mr. Hill said he acknowledged in words and actions what he knew in his heart and soul: God was calling him.
“Faith was a part of my life,” Mr. Hill said, adding his father was a pastor and he grew up in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. “But I went ahead and lived life.”
As a young man in the early 1960s, he was asked by a friend to lend moral support at a recruitment site. The friend never showed up, but something motivated Mr. Hill to take a test for the Marine Corps. The details of his entry into the “few, the proud, the Marines” was fraught with roadblocks of discrimination.
Mr. Hill later found out he had a “high score” on the test and a Marine said to him, “I never expected you to be black.”
When he entered Marine Corps officers’ training school at Quantico, Va., there were six blacks among the 300 would-be Marines. “I was the only [black] to graduate,” he recalled, when he became a second lieutenant. Another comment was made about his achievement when an officer told him, “You deserve a higher score but this is all I can give you.”
When he was sent to Camp LeJeune, N.C., he was the only black officer there. “In some ways, I felt like the Jackie Robinson of the Marines,” Mr. Hill said, referring to the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era.
“There was all kinds of stuff ... name-calling and no salutes,” he said. He remembered soldiers crossing the street to avoid saluting a black officer. “But I crossed too,” he said. “It wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.”
Mr. Hill endured, and with grace, rose above the situations.
Mr. Hill was a first lieutenant during his first tour of duty in Vietnam, 1965-66; a captain during his second in 1970. “I was an infantry company commander. I led troops into combat,” he said. “I believe God was involved. There’s 200 in a company, and during that time, I only lost two men,” he said.
Though he had a good service record, he still faced the race issue as a black officer. But he used subtle ways to defuse it. Whites, blacks and Latinos braided white, black and brown shoelaces and wore them on their wrists. “I wore all three,” Mr. Hill said.
He also arranged some football games so troops could “let off some steam.” Having played football in college, Mr. Hill said he could “handle himself” when shots came his way.
Gen. Widdeke, known as “Texas Pete,” would inspect the troops, Mr. Hill said. “Even if my uniform was dirty, I would shine my shoes,” he said. The general took notice; Mr. Hill went on to become the two-star general’s staff secretary. “Everyone had to go through me to get to him,” said Mr. Hill, who is in his 60s.
The general knew there were race issues and he asked Mr. Hill to address them. “I put together some information I saw in Ebony magazine and some other black history,” Mr. Hill said of the program on racism he developed. “I would first come out as a spit-shined Marine,” he said, then he would change into a Dashiki, a colorful African shirt. “I would talk about being a Marine no matter what clothes I wore,” he said.
As Mr. Hill’s Marine Corps career progressed, he also coordinated the National Minority Officers’ Recruitment Program.
Later, an ironic coincidence put him face-to-face with the Marine who had initially thwarted his entry into the corps by misdirecting his paperwork. “I was the camp commander at Camp Courtney in Okinawa, Japan,” Mr. Hill said, and noted his dual role also was battalion commander. “There were some 2,500 people under me.
“One day we had a formation and I saw that Marine. He had only advanced one rank. I walked by him and asked, ‘Do you know who I am?’ And he said, ‘Yes,’ and I kept walking,” Mr. Hill recalled. Mr. Hill never sought him out. “But God provided me with that opportunity,” he said.
Mr. Hill recalled the great responsibility associated with his last assignment as a U.S. delegate with Work Group 5 for NATO. He served at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and traveled frequently to alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
Mr. Hill said his assignment involved communication systems. “They’re classified issues,” he said.
But, he noted, this service made him keenly aware of the power and nuances of words in different languages. “Finding the right word sometimes made the difference between a proposal being approved or rejected,” he said.
When Mr. Hill retired from the Marine Corps in 1984, he prepared for the private sector by taking a class and reading business literature. His methodical approach helped him land an executive position with Marriott International Corp., which took him to Washington, D.C.; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Atlanta; and finally Cleveland, as the director of human resources. There, he introduced “Pathways to Independence,” a welfare-to-work program that helped some 250 people get full-time employment with Marriott.
“Marriott had funds for the program, but I never used that money. I learned how to get state and federal grants,” he said.
Though his business career was still going strong, Mr. Hill said he felt a pull toward the ministry. “I fasted and prayed and asked the Lord what to do,” he said. He noted that he and his wife, Mary, started attending St. Paul United Methodist Church. “God sent me to that church. If felt I was home.”
In another instance, “a friend of my wife, Mary, told me I was being called. Something told me to listen,” he said, noting his wife had also recognized his calling. “I remember as a boy feeling that God told me to live a good life and he would show me wondrous things. He was true to his word.
“Now it was my turn ... to go into the ministry,” he said. “I had grown in faith and it was time to step out in faith.”
He attended the Methodist Theological School in Ohio and earned a master of divinity degree. Mr. Hill became pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church, 1413 Belmont Ave., on July 1, 2005. The church is marking its 90th anniversary Sept. 13 with a banquet and Sept. 14 with a service.
Ellie