David Hilton

David P. Hilton, retired Anne Arundel Community College English professor and nationally known poet, died of complications of prostate cancer April 7 at his home in Chestertown. He was 67. Born in Oakland, CA, Mr. Hilton earned his Associate of Arts degree from Oakland Junior College, a Bachelor of Arts degree from San Jose State University and Master of Arts degree from California State College-Hayward. He completed doctoral course work at the University of Wisconsin. As a young man, Mr. Hilton enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving 1961-64. In 1971, he moved to Baltimore and took a teaching position at AACC, where he assumed responsibility for the poetry courses and became a major promoter of cultural events on campus. He was a founding member of Artists in Residence, an organization established in 1992 of creative artists on the faculty and staff at AACC. The organization presented two programs per year featuring artists displaying and analyzing the creative process. Mr. Hilton was well known in Baltimore poetry circles, having served in the 1980s as a reviewer for the Baltimore Sun and co-editor of several Baltimore-area literary reviews, notably Exquisite Corpse with Andre Codrescu. The author of eleven books of poetry, he was published in The Yale Review, Poetry magazine, scores of other literary magazines and a dozen nationally distributed anthologies. He is included in the 2003 anthology Poetry 180, created by then-poet laureate of the United States, Billy Collins. His poetry was characterized by accessibility and a very broad human sympathy, typified by one of his best-known poems, “In Praise of Bic Pens:” “I’m writing…. …lines to get the 12-year-olds off cigarettes Or save the fat man from his refrigerator…. Or the RA private from re-upping for six…. Oh, if only I can get it written No one will burn kittens or slap little boys or Make little girls cry Or cower at cancer or coronaries or plain palsied old age….” Mr. Hilton was a longtime member of the Maryland Writers Council and the Maryland State Arts Council, which named him poet of the year and in 1984, awarded him its Individual Artist Fellowship Grant in Creative Writing. His 12th book, completed just before his death, will be published later this year. Ronald DeAbreu, his former department chair, said the thousands of students Mr. Hilton taught in his 31-year career benefited greatly “from his enormous intellectual vitality and sheer breadth and depth of knowledge.” “David was the very definition of the teaching professional, a passionate lover of literature and a consummate writing teacher,” said Jean Turner Schreier, Ph.D., his former dean. “Every student composition he graded--and he graded tens of thousands -- he read with the same care and attention that he brought to his own writing.” Mr. Hilton retired two years ago to resettle in Chestertown, to travel abroad, to write, to enjoy chess and jazz, and to follow his beloved Baltimore Orioles. In Chestertown, he was active in the Unitarian Universalist Church and in sharing his literary talents with the Washington College Academy of Lifelong Learning and the Rock Hall Book Club. Survivors include his wife and best friend of 30 years, the former, Joanne Bucceroni; one brother, Paul Hilton of Danville, CA; two nephews, Michael Hilton of California and Will Maich of Cohasset, MA and two nieces, Kristina Grish of New York and Gena Grish of Frederick. A May 15 celebration and remembrance of life will be held at 11:00 a.m. at Wilmer Park Pavilion in Chestertown with the place and location to be announced. Memorial contributions may be made to the Unitarian Universalists of the Chester River (UUCR) Memorial Garden Fund at UUCR, P. O. Box 592, 100 Cross Street, Chestertown, MD 21620.

David Hilton

April 7, 2005