George Albert Hill, 85, Sturgis, died Monday, April 30, 2012, at Sturgis Regional Senior Care.

Visitation will be Thursday from noon to 9:00 p.m. at Kinkade Funeral Chapel.

Funeral services will be held Friday, May 4, 2012, at 10:00 a.m. at First United Methodist Church in Sturgis with Pastor Jenene Earl officiating. Burial will follow at Black Hills National Cemetery with military honors provided by the Sturgis Veteran's Honor Guard.

George was born December 27, 1926, in Fort Pierre, SD, to Albert and Bertha (Davis) Hill. He attended elementary school at the Erskine building in Sturgis and graduated from Rapid City High School in 1944. During high school he worked two summers on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation as a ranch hand. For the next two summers he worked for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad as a freight handler. He graduated from Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, SD, in 1948 and during his college years served as an assistant pastor for two years at the Fulton and Farmer Methodist churches. While in college he met the love of his life, Norma Jean Welch. They were married June 1, 1948, and celebrated more than 63 years as husband and wife.

They moved to Rapid City where George worked for a year at Gambles. They moved to Lemmon, SD, in 1949 where George worked for 19 years as an English, speech and driver education teacher, principal, oral interpretation coach and play director at Lemmon High School. He was called into military service while in Lemmon and spent one year in Japan during the Korean conflict. Upon his return he attended the University of South Dakota, earning his master's degree in education. While in Lemmon he worked helping to build the Petrified Wood Park.

In 1967 George and his family moved to Sturgis where he took on a teaching position in social studies and driver education at Sturgis High. He was selected Meade School District Teacher of the Year in 1980 and retired in 1989. Throughout the years George remained active in ministry, frequently doing pulpit supply. He worked for 23 summers as the "Dam Man" doing summer maintenance for Jarvis Davenport and then the city of Sturgis.

George was a member of Sturgis First United Methodist Church, a Certified Lay Speaker, served as Western District Coordinator of Lay Speaking, and was selected Western District Lay Person of the Year in 1989. He was a 61-year Master Mason, serving as Lemmon Lodge #151 Worshipful Master in 1959. He was a 50-year member of the Order of the Eastern Star. He taught 55 Alive for ten years and loved reading and gardening.

Grateful for sharing his life are his wife, Norma; his three daughters and sons-in-law, Myrna Hill and Allen Miller of Sturgis, Audrey and Sterling Kloster of Sioux Falls, and Lana and Dale Anderson of Pierre; his three grandsons, Cole Robbins of Sioux Falls, and Davis and Jared Anderson of Pierre; his sister, Helen Boos of Rapid City; his brother, Dick of McMurry, PA; along with numerous nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his brother, Les; and his sister, Evalyn Heine.

Memorials have been established to the Sturgis First United Methodist Church Special Building Fund and the Shriners' Crippled Children's Hospital.

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