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About Dr. J. William Hillman

Dr. J. William Hillman was born in Dante, Virginia, on January 9, 1921. He graduated from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where he also completed an internship in general surgery under Dr. Alfred Blalock. After two years in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps, he returned to Johns Hopkins for his orthopaedic residency, 1949-51, under Dr. Robert W. Johnson, Jr. Following his residency, Dr. Hillman became the first full-time Instructor in Orthopaedic Surgery at Johns Hopkins.

In 1952, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Vanderbilt Medical School. Dr. Hillman possessed an enormous capacity for work, and within six years became Professor and Head of Orthopaedics, then a section of General Surgery. By 1962 he had succeeded in convincing the Dean to establish an auto-nomous Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation. He served as the Department's first Chairman until his death on March 6, 1970, at age 49.

Dr. Hillman's research interests encompassed a broad spectrum, including epiphyseal growth factors, perimetry in the assessment of scoliosis, the surgical management of cerebral palsy, hormone therapy for SCFE, and the pathogenesis of fat embolism. He was a member of the American Orthopaedic Association, the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery's Board of Directors, the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, and the AMA Residency Review Committee. In addition, he was Associate Editor of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery and President of the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy. His public service activities included establishment of an orthopaedic rehabilitation clinic in Nome, Alaska. In 1975, the Department of Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation established the Hillman Lectureship in Orthopaedic Surgery as a tribute to this great man.

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