Walter Lee Hillsman

Walter Lee Hillsman went home peacefully to God on August 19, 2022. He was 79 years old. He was a truly exceptional person, a man of deep faith, a world class musician, and a dearly loved friend to many.

Walter was born on February 25, 1943, in Dallas, Texas to Jane and Paul Hillsman, devout members of the Gaston Avenue Baptist Church. They were a family of musicians. Paul played the clarinet, Jane played the piano, and Walter’s younger brother Roger won awards for the bassoon. Paul and Jane provided Walter with organ lessons starting at a young age. Walter’s father told him that at as a very small boy, during Sunday morning church services, Walter would point at the church’s pipe organ and say, “Daddy, that is what I want to do when I grow up.”

Throughout Walter’s early years in Dallas, his parents were supportive of his musical aspirations, once driving him to Shreveport, Louisiana to see his organ teacher perform a concert at St. Mark’s Cathedral. As a youngster he had several excellent organ teachers and mentors, including organists of local churches, a professor of organ at Southern Methodist University, and the Director of the Woodrow Wilson High School Orchestra, all of whom encouraged him to seriously develop his musical ability.

When Walter was eleven, his mother purchased a “first-rate” coffee table book that beautifully documented and described the 1953 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. This book made a deep impression on Walter. Walter wrote that he “devoured” this book, with its glorious color photographs of Westminster Abby “picturing the ceremony in all of its splendour, and vestments, and colour, and text, and music.” Walter believed that reading this book, including every footnote, was the beginning of the sojourn that led him to Oxford University and to his conversion to the Anglo-Catholic wing of the worldwide Anglican Church. According to Walter, “Briefly put, I found the doors opened for me staggering.”

As a teenager, Walter was awarded a scholarship to attend a choral workshop at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. During that trip, he met with Dr. Alexander McCurdy, the head of the Organ Department at the renowned Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. With Dr. McCurdy’s help, Walter was awarded a three-year scholarship to the Curtis Institute. He left Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas to complete his high school education at the Lincoln College Preparatory School in Philadelphia while he studied organ at the Curtis Institute. In 1964 he graduated from Curtis with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music. During his time in Philadelphia, Walter served as Organist and Choirmaster of Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church, and of Old Christ Church.

Upon his graduation from Curtis, Walter was encouraged to apply to Oxford or Cambridge by one of his mentors, Dr. Robert Evans, Professor of Theology and Organist at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Evans had attended the University of Cambridge in the 1950’s. Walter was granted a scholarship to attend New College, Oxford University. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Oxford in 1967, his Master of Arts Degree in 1971, and his Doctor of Philosophy Degree in 1985. During his time at New College, Walter also served as an Organ Scholar to Sir David Lumsden, the New College Organist. At Oxford, Walter earned a Fulbright Scholarship to study with Prof. Karl Richter at the Staatliche Hochschule fuer Musik in Munich. Walter became fluent in German.

Walter’s organ performances, articles, presentations, broadcast recitals, and positions as organist, choirmaster, instructor, lecturer, and performer during the years he lived in Oxford are too numerous to list. He won distinctions on both sides of the Atlantic. He played recitals at Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Notre-Dame Cathedral, Chartres Cathedral, Washington Cathedral, St. Thomas Church (Fifth Avenue), the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and at Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Columbia, and Yale Universities. Walter gave broadcast recitals for many radio stations, including the BBC and Radio France. He recorded on the Vista label in England and the Teldec label in Germany. He taught at Trinity College of Music in London, Reading University, and as a member of the Faculty of Music at Oxford University.

In 1966, Walter was very proud to have been chosen as the accompanist for a performance by the joint choirs of New College, Oxford and Magdalen College, Oxford as they sang in a recital which was part of a concert series that commemorated the 900th anniversary of the founding of Westminster Abby.

In 1993, Walter moved back to Dallas, although he remained a true Englishman at heart. In Dallas he held various positions, including as a German Instructor at Eastfield College and a Customer Service Representative for Neiman Marcus. He obtained his brokerage license and worked for Fidelity Investments for fourteen years. During these years in Dallas, Walter was close to his brother Roger and to his cousins Marjorie Pace and Evelyn Baldwin, along with Marjorie’s daughters Anne McAdams and Jane Silak and their families.

In 2015, Walter and Roger moved together to Houston into an apartment at the Clarewood House senior living facility. The brothers spent some happy years at Clarewood House and loved this new community. Roger passed away in April 2022, and this was a devastating loss for Walter.

With his great talent and countless accomplishments, Walter would have been justified in showing some arrogance, but he did not. Walter was a sensitive, loving person, who truly understood the value of friendship and nurtured the relationships he had with dear friends near and far. He remained humble and appreciative of any gesture by a relative or friend, however small. He had a wonderful sense of humor, and he dearly loved a good joke or an off-color greeting card. Those who knew Walter will never forget his joyous laugh and loving spirit.

A memorial service in celebration of and in thanksgiving for the life of Walter Hillsman will be conducted at 11:30 AM on Saturday, October 1, 2022 in the Memorial Oaks Funeral Home Chapel, followed by a graveside committal.

In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests with gratitude that memorial contributions in the name of Walter be directed to Help Musicians, Musicians Benevolent Fund in the U.K. (www.helpmusicians.org.uk) and to the New Organist Fund, American Guild of Organists in the U.S.A. (www.agohq.org).