Louis G. Hill, 89; lawmaker, judge, Rizzo challenger

Louis G. Hill, 89, a three-term state senator who unsuccessfully challenged Mayor Frank Rizzo in the 1975 Democratic primary and who later became a respected Common Pleas Court judge, died Saturday, July 13, of Alzheimer's disease at the Hill at Whitemarsh.

Mr. Hill was a hard-working, effective lawmaker from Northwest Philadelphia when, on Feb. 2, in a highly unusual move, the Democratic City Committee chose him to unseat its own incumbent.

Serious and determined, Mr. Hill began his campaign on the spot, addressing reporters as he emerged from the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel with the party's endorsement.

"We live in a city divided," he said, "a city where more than half of the population looks with suspicion on an administration dominated by political hacks, whose sole qualification seems to be their dedication to the reelection of the present mayor."

Mr. Hill, a proven litigator with a platform to improve the city, campaigned on street corners and in train stations, but his rapid-fire delivery worked against him, wrote Joseph R. Daughen and Peter Binzen, in their book The Cop Who Would Be King.

"He couldn't draw flies," Rizzo sneered after hearing of one sparsely attended rally at Broad and Chestnut Streets, the two reported.

Mr. Hill's entreaties to Rizzo to debate met with silence. On April 28, Mr. Hill and his staff set up two lecterns in the City Hall courtyard below Rizzo's office.

While Mr. Hill chided the mayor for being too "chicken" to debate, a staffer dressed in a yellow chicken suit circulated though the crowd, clucking. The stunt made the evening TV news, but was scorned by the incumbent in a later speech.

"He debated a chicken," Rizzo said. "And the chicken won."

When the votes were counted on May 20, Rizzo won by a vote of 183,672 to 151,948.

"It's a shame the city wasn't able to benefit from a man of action, not just words," said Crawford Hill, fund-raising manager for his father's campaign. "He had the depth to take the city farther than Frank Rizzo did. We had to wait for decades, for Ed Rendell to start turning the city around."

The press of time, and Rizzo's outsize personality, worked against the quieter Mr. Hill's candidacy.

"He had lots of good ideas for the next evolution of the city, but we ran out of time," his son said. "We had a couple of months to mount a campaign against a guy who was a legend, for better or worse."

Born in Palm Beach, Fla., into a patrician family, the tall, reserved Mr. Hill grew up in New York and later came to Philadelphia.

In 1935, his mother, Ann Kaufman Hill, and his father, Crawford Hill, divorced. She married Richardson (Dick) Dilworth, mayor of Philadelphia from 1956 to 1962.

Mr. Hill graduated from St. George's School in Rhode Island, and from Harvard University in 1944. While there, he boxed as a 195-pound heavyweight, briefly considering a career as a boxer, his son said. He also boxed - and won - while in the Marine Corps.

He earned a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1949. "He never really enjoyed law school, but he so admired Dick, he figured it was the route to pursue," his son said.

Mr. Hill served two hitches in the Marines, one during World War II, and a second in the Korean War.

After an honorable discharge, he joined his stepfather's law firm, Dilworth Paxson, in 1952.

As a litigator, and later as a judge, he was known for so immersing himself in the details of a case that he became expert. He "devoured" medical textbooks in order to defend physicians, his son said. He was undefeated in 27 jury trials.

But Dilworth's influence primed Mr. Hill for a political career.

When the Democratic Party needed a candidate for the 36th senatorial seat centered in Northwest Philadelphia, he stepped forward.

"He liked big challenges. Entering into the public arena, and politics, was something that fascinated him, and he decided to do it," his son said.

But being in the limelight did not come as easily to Mr. Hill as it did to Dilworth.

"Dick was an outgoing and gregarious man," Mr. Hill's son said. "Dad was far more reserved . . . It was a big step for him to enter the public arena in that regard."

What he lacked in flamboyance, he made up for in hard work. During his three terms from 1966 to 1978, Mr. Hill was known for his meticulous preparation.

He worked in the sitting room of his home on Wissahickon Avenue, with yellow legal pads spread around him, his son said.

That same work ethic stood him in good stead when he took the Municipal Court bench in 1977, and later the Common Pleas Court bench, retiring on Dec. 31, 1997.

During his tenure, only one or two of his opinions were overturned, his son said. "It was an unbelievable record. He took every one of them so seriously, and went so far beyond the circus, writing these very thoughtful opinions."

Kristine W. Holt, a Center City lawyer, recalled clerking for Mr. Hill under a work-study grant in summer 1997 while in her second year of law school.

At the time, he had offices in the Complex Litigation Center atop the Wanamaker building. The judge, she said, was generous with his time, and he was also very kind. The pair had been working on a complex case involving asbestos when her grant ran out.

"Judge Hill took it upon himself to keep me on as his clerk until December of that year, paying me the stipend out of his own pocket," Holt said.

While he sought challenge in public life, he looked to private life for adventure.

Even before running was trendy, Mr. Hill ran every day along the Wissahickon Creek, and he took his family for hikes along the Appalachian Trail and backpacking in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

"He was a city boy who ended up loving the wilderness," his son said.

Mr. Hill was married for 25 years to the former Jane Cox before the two divorced. They had seven children. He married the former Marilyn Young in 1977.

For relaxation, he read history or worked out in the home gym he had built himself out of airplane cables.

"He was a great dad," said his son. "We had our times in the '60s, but ended up having a wonderful relationship."

Surviving, besides his wife, former wife, and son Crawford, are sons Thomas and Michael; daughters Leslie, Jessie, Charlotte, and Ann; 10 grandchildren; stepchildren Anita Young, Michelle Peretz, and Melissa Young; and three half-brothers and -sisters.

Plans for services are pending.