Russell Eugene Hill

Russell Eugene Hill of Silver Spring, MD was called home to be with The Lord on Friday, December 1, 2017. He was the beloved husband of the late Loris DuBois Hill and devoted father of Holly Hill-Little and the late Todd R. Hill. He was the proud grandfather of Tiffany Little & Malcolm Little. Russell was a native of New Castle Pennsylvania, and was born March 22, 1941 to the late James Porter Hill and Ruth Engs Hill.

He graduated from New Castle High School in 1959, and enlisted in the U.S. Army after completing two years at Youngstown State University. He served with the Army Security Agency for over two years and then returned to YSU where he received a BA degree in sociology. He then worked with the Diocesan school board of Pittsburgh in conjunction with the Office of Economic Opportunity and CHARGE, Inc. He had also served as director of the West Side Community Action Center, was the community organization specialist for the New Castle Redevelopment Authority, and had served as the relocation director of the Sharon Redevelopment Center. He was president of the Union for Human and Urban Revitalization and Upgrading (known as UHURU), a non-profit dedicated to getting low and moderate income housing on the West Side in the 1970s. Before relocating to Massachusetts, he worked for the National Center for Low and Moderate Income Housing in Washington, DC. He served as the first Director of Real Estate for Harvard University during the 1970s.

In 1984, Russell founded his own commercial real estate company, R.E. Hill & Company, Inc. The firm is New England’s only African American firm dedicated exclusively to providing commercial real estate services to both public and private sector clients throughout the Greater Boston Area. For more than two decades, the firm provided a wide range of integrated services to clients from tenant representation to space planning and construction management. The firm has leased or sold over 5 million square feet of office, R&D, warehouse, institutional and retail space.

Russell was a devout member of Greater Framingham Community Church, where he participated in the Men’s choir and served as Chairman of the Renovation Committee.

He is survived by his daughter, Holly Hill-Little and son-in-law Dr. Raymond Little, one granddaughter, Tiffany Little, one grandson, Malcolm Little of Kingwood, TX; his brother James Edward Hill and sister-in-law Joan Hill of Silver Spring, MD and his brother-in-law James T. Barnes, Jr. and sister-in-law Jacquelyn Barnes of Winterville, NC. He is also survived by a host of many other family members and friends who adored him.

Funeral services will be held Sunday, December 10th at 3:00PM at the Greater Framingham Community Church, 44 Franklin St., Framingham, MA. Visitation will be precede the service from 2-3PM at the church. Burial will be held at 9:30am on Monday, December 11th at the Edgell Grove Cemetery Mausoleum, 53 Grove Street, Framingham, MA.

Arrangements under the direction of Duckett Funeral Home of J. S. Waterman, Sudbury, MA.