R. Vernon Hill, 83; War Veteran And Author Called `Silent Hero'

R. Vernon Hill, a Puyallup funeral director and author who served seven years in China, first with the Army during World War II and later with the Central Intelligence Agency, died at his home Sept. 5. He was 83.

Mr. Hill's memoirs from the war years are the subject of a book published two years ago titled, "My War With Imperial Japan, Escape and Evasion."

The book, now in its second hardcover printing, took five years and a trip to Washington, D.C., to write, to make sure he wouldn't be publishing classified information, recalled his daughter, Vernell Doyle of Puyallup, who typed the manuscript.

This summer was difficult, Doyle said. Because her father survived so many battles, she figured his illness would be just one more to get through. But advanced kidney disease, along with other physical ailments, hastened his his death.

"The key to my dad's life," said his daughter, "was that he spent his whole life devoting it to other people: from protecting an international settlement in Shanghai to when he was behind (enemy) lines getting out pilots to being active in his church and Boy Scouts.

"I always called him my silent hero because he was quiet and unassuming and really didn't stress a lot of his accomplishments in life, but rather always turned the conversation around to others and their life."

He was born and reared in Puyallup, where he had 10 years of perfect attendance in the public schools before graduating from

Puyallup High School in 1927, the year he won a county-wide high school pole-vault championship.

He later graduated from Washington Business College, studied Chinese at the University of California and attended Mortuary School in Minnesota.

In 1932, he toured the Far East for 6 1/2 weeks as a drummer in an orchestra he led.

"I think he looked at China as an opportunity, a last frontier," his daughter said. "I think he was just kind of intrigued with the Orient."

Three years later, he returned to China as an auditor for Standard Oil. Six years later, after Japan invaded China, he was held captive by Japanese authorities who accused him of crossing a police barrier to photograph a fortified zone, his daughter said. "Actually, it was a tourist attraction," she added.

Mr. Hill was released and left Japan on one of the last passenger ships to reach North America before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Upon his return, and before the attack, he warned that Japan intented to attack. "Not many people listened and took him seriously," said his daughter.

After Pearl Harbor, at age 34, he volunteered for the infantry and was sent back to China. One account in his book details an operation he was involved in that freed 46 pilots who had been shot down, the daughter said.

Another highlight of the book recalls a 1945 mission in which he and two Chinese men traveled 200 miles in 10 days through enemy territory to get Japan's puppet government to surrender. The mission marked the start of the turnover of occupied central China and allied nationals from the Japanese, his daughter said.

Mr. Hill, who attained the rank of major, was awarded two Battle Stars, two Bronze Stars and three Chinese Medals.

After the war, he spent a year in Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., recovering from malnutrition, malaria and other infirmities.

In 1949, he was asked to return to China to the military attache office in Peking, and he also served with the CIA as a staff officer from the time the agency was created in 1947, his daughter said.

In 1953, after nearly 20 years' absence, he returned to Puyallup to rejoin the Hill Funeral Home that his father, E.N. Hill, started in 1908.

He was a member of the Puyallup United Methodist Church, the Puyallup Kiwanis Club, the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Corinthian Masonic Lodge No. 38, the Puyallup and Ezra Meeker Historical Society, the Mount Rainier Chapter of the National Eagle Scout Association, Retired Officers Association and Friends of Fort Lewis Military Museum.

His wife of 55 years, Pearl Johnson, an English teacher, died four years ago.

Besides his daughter, he is survived by a brother, Clayton Hill, Puyallup; two sisters, Elnora Bassett, Tacoma, and Ruby Gates, Vancouver, Wash.; and a granddaughter, Karina Finlayson of Browns Point.

A funeral was Thursday at the United Methodist Church in Puyallup, with burial in Woodbine Cemetery with military honors.

The family suggests remembrances to the Peace Lutheran Church or the United Methodist Church of Puyallup, or to the American Legion.