Bill Hillman was born in Rexburg, Idaho on December 10, 1922 and began his broadcasting career in 1942 at Boise radio station KIDO.

During World War II he was a first lieutenant assigned to Army Intelligence as a cryptanalyst

After the war, he settled in California and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in English.

He worked for rdaio and television stations in Vallejo and Oakland before joining the staff of KPIX-TV in San Francisco.

He remained with KPIX from 1953 until his retirement in 1992 -- serving in a variety of capacities in which he became well known to the public, including field reporter, writer-reporter-narrator for special feature series on "Eyewitness News" and anchorman on the early morning news programs.

From 1957 to 1973 Bill served as Northern California correspondent for the U.S. Information Agency, and his reports were heard throughout the world on the Voice of America.

He also held both an FCC First Class Radio-Telephone Operator's license and a commercial pilot's license.

A member of AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) since 1948, Bill was a longime vice president of the 80,000 member union of performers and broadcasters before being elected AFTRA's president, a post he held from 1979 to 1984.

During his five year tenure as president, AFTRA's membership grew from 41,000 to 66,000. He served on the union's national board for more than 30 years and he held every elected office in the union's San Francisco local including four terms as president.

He was also a leading architect of the AFTRA Health and Retirement Funds, which are widely regarded as among the best employee benefits programs in the broadcast-entertainment industry. A former chairman of the funds, he served as a trustee from 1979 until his death.

In recognition of his "immense contributions" to his fellow broadcasters through their union, he received the George Heller Memorial Gold Life Membership Card, awarded for "distinguished service" to AFTRA and its members.

He was also a CHARTER member of the San Francisco Bay Area Broadcast Legends, a group of retired and semiretired veterean broadcasters. Committed to preserving the history of broadcasting in the Bay Area, he served as chairman of the Broadcast Legends Steering Committee and it's Archive Committee -- capacities in which he managed to rescue and save hundres of hours of tapes and transcriptions from various broadcast outlets.

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