CHARLES ALBERT HILLIARD
May 16, 1925-June 29, 2013
Charles Albert Hilliard, 88, died on June 29, 2013 at Wayne Memorial Hospital. He was born on May 16, 1925, in Granville County, N.C., a few miles from Oxford.
He graduated from Elon College in 1948, his education interrupted by WWII. He joined the Navy and was later transferred to the Fleet Marines, First Special Brigade, serving in the Medical Corps on five different ships during WWII. He returned to school after the war, majoring in chemistry and biology and minoring in art and math. He did post-graduate work at Elon and Duke in physics.
The first infirmary of Elon University was stocked and run by Mr. Hilliard, who saw patients and administered medication, having received some training by a physician during his service in WWII. He met his wife, Dorothy Shepherd, by posting her name on the infirmary bulletin board as not having returned cough syrup bottles, and they were married Aug. 28, 1948.
Mr. Hilliard taught school for one year, worked as a health inspector for three years, then worked for Winthrop Laboratories, a division of Sterling Drugs for 33 years. He also painted portraits of some of the physicians at Duke University.
Al loved gardening, building furniture, making small wooden toys for his children and grandchildren, searching his genealogical history, showing his grandchildren "magic tricks," riding them around on his tractor, learning new programs on his Mac computers, and most of all, he loved playing golf, which he continued to do three times a week as late as July 2012. He even "played his age" when he was 67.
He was a member of Duke Memorial Methodist Church and also of the Masons. His enjoyment of research in genealogy led to preserving his own history. The first of several books that he published was called "The Way It Was," and can be found on Amazon in both paperback and on Kindle.
Charles "Al" Hilliard was a gentle, kind man with twinkling eyes and a mischievous sense of humor. He was quick to help a neighbor and loved animals, especially dogs. He loved learning and enjoyed his family. He will be missed by his two daughters, Kathy Hilliard Lies and her husband, Steve, of Goldsboro; Dody Hilliard Denault and her husband, Richard, of Elon; four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, Windy Lies Lampson and her husband, Jeff, and their son, Noah; Hillary Lies Messer and her daughter, Hayley; Katy Denault and Patty Denault. He is also survived by four of his seven brothers, Gilbert, Henry, Perry and Warren Peete Hilliard, and three of four sisters, Lorraine Maynard, Myrtle Jean Mosheim and Joyce Carroll. He rejoins his wife, "Dot," who died on March 18, 2013.
A service will be held on Wednesday, July 3, at Duke Memorial Methodist Church in Durham at 3 p.m. Memorials may be made to 3HC or Kitty Askins Hospice Center of Goldsboro, or Hospice and Palliative Care Center of Alamance-Caswell County.
Online condolences at CremationSocietyNC.com.
(Pd)
Published in Obituaries on July 2, 2013 1:48 PM