Doctor John Laurance (Larry) Hill, 86, passed from this life on July 23, 2022 in the Charlestown Senior Community, Catonsville, MD. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Charlotte, daughter Mary Magnus, son David Hill, brother Robert (Laura) Hill, grandchildren Rebecca and Taylor Magnus, and Zachary Hill. He was predeceased by his parents, sister Jacklyn Ack, and son John Jeffrey Hill.
Larry was born June 7, 1936 in Columbus, Ohio to Winfrith E. and Mary Margaret (Evans) Hill. He attended the Columbus Public Schools with time, also, in the Columbus Boychoir School. He was an able student, excelled playing the violin in high school and from a young age always had a job of some kind. On high school graduation, aged 18, he hitch-hiked the ALCAN Highway to Alaska, alone, seeking work to earn money for college. His Anchorage employers hired him for the next four summers until he completed a B.A. degree at Ohio Wesleyan University.
He attended Ohio State University Medical School, completed a General Surgery residency at Riverside Hospital and was an Army surgeon in Vietnam. Next he did liver transplantation research in Denver, Colorado before moving to Washington, D.C. for training in Thoracic Surgery at George Washington University and Pediatric Surgery and Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at the Washington Children's Hospital. He held certifications in General Surgery, Pediatric Surgery and Thoracic Surgery.
Moving to Chicago, he was Assistant Professor of Pediatric Surgery at the University of Chicago for five years and assisted the transplantation program there. In 1977 he was recruited to develop a Pediatric Surgery service at the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore and to co-found the first joint training program in Pediatric Surgery in the country linking the University of Maryland and The Johns Hopkins Hospitals.
Larry was a member of numerous surgical associations, received awards for excellence in teaching, was awarded the Salzberg Award for mentoring by the American Academy of Pediatrics and is named Emeritus Professor of Surgery at the University of Maryland, where a professorial chair in Pediatric Surgery is being established in his name. In his years at the University of Maryland, Dr. Hill mentored dozens of pediatric surgery fellows and hundreds of surgical residents and medical students. He left a lasting imprint at the School of Medicine with his dedication to education and patient care and his leadership.
