Hill, John Wiley

Birth and Education

John Hill was born on November 26, 1890, on a farm near Shelbyville, Indiana, the third of four sons born to Theophilus Wiley and Katherine (Jameson) Hill. Growing up on a failing farm, Hill graduated from the public high school in 1909. He worked for local newspapers before joining the staff of the Akron (Ohio) Press. After about two years there, Hill left to study journalism and English at Indiana University. After two brief stints in school, he quit and returned to Akron, this time to work for the Beacon-Journal. In 1913, he and a friend founded the short-lived Chicago Daily Digest; a few months after it folded, he and another friend began publishing a paper in Shelbyville. It, too, collapsed, and he moved to Cleveland to report again for the Press and then the Plain Dealer. Hill married Hildegarde Beck on June 19, 1916, in Cleveland; she was the daughter of the first conductor of that city's symphony. Hill's formal education apparently ended for lack of funds, but his entrepreneurial spirit continued to serve him well.

Early Public Relations Career

In 1920, Hill made a tentative step toward a career in public relations. He created a newsletter for local executives for the Union Trust Company in Cleveland, while also serving as financial editor for the Daily Metal Trade. This dual role led him to two important realizations: first, that many journalists were inept in reporting on financial news, and secondly, that most executives had no desire to deal with the press. In short, Hill identified a need for a “corporate publicity office,” which he opened in Cleveland in April 1927. In 1933, he invited Don Knowlton to join him, thus creating Hill & Knowlton.

People who knew Hill believed that Hill & Knowlton's Cleveland accounts, including Union Trust, Otis Steel, Standard Oil of Ohio, and Republic Steel, had a tremendous impact on Hill's way of thinking and his approach to public relations. In his later years, Hill often reminded people of a banker or a statesman, and his quiet, conservative approach seems to have developed from his association with financiers and steel magnates, many of whom hated big government and organized labor.

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