Charles Hill

Morton Charles Hill (April 28, 1936 – March 27, 2021) was an American diplomat and academic. He served as diplomat-in-residence and lecturer in international studies at Yale University. A career foreign service officer, Hill was a senior adviser to George Shultz, Henry Kissinger, and Ronald Reagan, as well as Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the sixth secretary-general of the United Nations.

At Yale, he taught, along with Paul Kennedy and John Gaddis, the seminar "Studies in Grand Strategy", a rigorous interdisciplinary study of leadership, statecraft and diplomacy. He also taught students enrolled in the directed studies program at Yale.

Early life and education Hill was born in Bridgeton, New Jersey, on April 28, 1936. His father, Morton, worked as a dentist; his mother, Alvenia (Gates), was a housewife. Hill studied at Brown University, earning a bachelor's degree in 1957. He subsequently undertook postgraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating from its law school in 1960 before obtaining a master's degree in American studies the following year. He then joined the United States Foreign Service. In the last capacity, he was a speechwriter for ambassador Ellsworth Bunker. Hill became a speechwriter for Henry Kissinger starting in 1974, with Kissinger later recounting how Hill "reviewed almost everything I wrote". He was recognized for his thorough note-taking, penning approximately 20,000 pages that influenced policy discussions. These came under national scrutiny during the Iran–Contra affair. it also helped Shultz become one of the few senior members of the Reagan administration not to be implicated in the scandal. Not since Rollin G. Osterweis, who taught "The History and Practice of American Oratory" until the late 1970s, had oratory been taught at Yale. He was listed as a signatory of a letter by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) to George W. Bush, but disputed his signing of that letter. Hill worked as chief foreign policy advisor to Rudy Giuliani during his 2008 presidential campaign.

Honors and recognition Hill was a recipient of the Superior Honor Award from the State Department, the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, and the Secretary of State's Medal. He was conferred an honorary doctorate of laws from Rowan University.

Personal life Hill's first marriage to Martha Mitchell ended in divorce. They had two daughters: Catharine and Emily. His daughter Emily died in 2013 from cancer. He married his second wife, Norma Thompson, in 1992. They remained married until his death.

Hill died on March 27, 2021, at a hospital in New Haven, Connecticut. He was 84, and suffered from an infection prior to his death.

Books by Hill Grand Strategies: Literature, Statecraft, and World Order, Yale, 2010. Trial of a Thousand Years: World Order and Islamism, Hoover, 2011. The Weaver's Lost Art, Hoover, 2014.

Books about Hill The Man on Whom Nothing Was Lost: The Grand Strategy of Charles Hill, by Molly Worthen, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006.