Obituary of Harry R. Hill, Jr.

Harry R. Hill, Jr., 94, of Lawrenceville, passed away on Saturday March 15, 2025 surrounded by his loving family.  Born in Trenton, New Jersey on April 30, 1930, Harry was raised in the Hillwood Lakes area of Ewing Township.  He graduated from Trenton High School in 1948 and received a B.A. from Rutgers University in 1952.  He went on to Wake Forest University Law School where he received an L.L.B in 1955 and belonged to Phi Delta Phi.

Harry devoted his life to his Faith, his profession, and his family.  His passion for the law and thirst for the defense of good was sparked when he was a student at Rutgers and cut classes to ride the train from New Brunswick to Trenton to watch the infamous trial of the Trenton Six. Beginning his law career in Trenton as a legal clerk at Katzenbach, Gildea & Rudner in 1956, he was hired by the Trenton law firm of Backes & Backes in 1958.  Over the years the firm evolved into Backes, Waldron & Hill and finally Backes & Hill.  His career spanned 65 years at the same firm handling a variety of matters but mainly complex litigation and work as general counsel to the Catholic Diocese of Trenton.  He was proud of the latter, having served four Bishops over his long career.  His service to the Church was rewarded in 2011 when Pope Benedict XVI bestowed upon him the Benemerenti Medal for service to the Church.  In addition to the New Jersey State Bar, he was admitted to practice in the U.S. District Courts of New Jersey and D.C., as well as the District Court of Appeals in D.C., the Third Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.  He served as president of the Mercer Country Bar Association from 1967-1969, where he also received the Michael J. Nizolek Award.  He was honored as Professional Lawyer of the Year by the New Jersey Commission on Professionalism in the Law and had a session of the Mercer County American Inn of Court named for him.

Over the years he served on the Board of Directors at Hope Ministries, St. Francis Medical Center, St. Francis Medical Center Foundation, Neumann Insurance Company, Franciscan Health Corporation East, Trenton YMCA, American National Red Cross-Trenton Chapter, and Delaware Valley United Way.  He was cofounder and counsel of the Better Business Bureau of Central NJ, a Paul Harris Fellow of the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International and named Man of the Year by the Trenton Jaycees.

His hobbies included coaching teams in the Lawrence Flames of the Lawrence Youth Ice Hockey Association for 17 years, long after his children had aged out of the program.  His love of nature began in his youth as an avid hunter, trapper, and fisherman in the streams and fields surrounding Hillwood Lakes in the 1930s and 40s. But his main passion was fly fishing which he enjoyed for over 80 years beginning as a teen on the waters near Hope, New Jersey.  There were annual fishing trips to camps in James and Hudson Bays in Canada, Labrador, and the Arctic for land-locked salmon.  After his fishing partners started to pass on, his sons and occasionally one of their friends would accompany him.  When long trips were no longer possible you could find him casting in Idaho and Montana, then in local streams, and finally at the Watershed pond with his beloved grandsons.

Son of the late Harry R. Hill, Sr and Mary Alice Abrahams, he was predeceased by his brother Judge William David Hill and his wife Kathleen.  He is survived by his loving wife of 58 years, Sara Smith Hill, three children Mark (Karin), John (Lindsey), and Elizabeth; five grandchildren whom he cherished—Colin, Liam, Ian, Ben, and Hazel—and many cousins, nieces and nephews.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Saturday March 29, 2025 at 11:00 AM at the Church of St. Ann located at 1253 Lawrence Road. Lawrenceville, NJ 08648.

The visitation for Harry will be held on Saturday March 29, 2025 from 9:00 to 11:00 AM in the rear chapel at the Church of St. Ann.

Burial will be private.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to Wake Forest University School of Law, the Church of St. Ann in Lawrence Township, or the Bishop’s Appeal for the Diocese of Trenton.