Colorado Law mourns the death of David Hill, professor of law emeritus, who died on June 30, 2024, in Lincoln, Nebraska, at the age of 84.
Hill graduated from the University of Nebraska College of Law in 1970 and went on to private practice in Minneapolis from 1970-1974. He began his teaching career as a professor of law at Gonzaga University College of Law and, later, Boston College Law School. Hill began teaching at the University of Colorado Law School in 1977 as the first professor of color in the school鈥檚 132-year history. He retired as Professor of Law Emeritus in 2007. Throughout his career, Hill was actively involved with the Council on Legal Educational Opportunity, the Law School Admissions Counsel, the Sam Cary Bar Association, and the Boulder Housing Authority.
Prior to joining the Colorado Law faculty in 1977, Hill was in private practice and served as chief of operations of the Minneapolis Housing and Urban Renewal Authority. These experiences led him to focus, as a scholar and professor, in the areas of property and corporate law. He published five editions of Landlord and Tenant Law in a Nutshell and two editions of a casebook entitled Cases and Materials on Basic Mortgage Law. He was instrumental in carrying out the first, and only, national longitudinal bar passage study, which examined student attitudes and performance, and bar passage for more than 23,000 students who entered law school in the fall of 1991. Hill also played a major role in the development of a Model Academic Assistance Program used in many law schools.
鈥淒avid was a devoted teacher with an unwavering commitment to academic standards in the classroom, and he played a crucial role in advancing the principles of fairness and equity in the hiring of faculty and staff and the recruitment of students. He was also a very dear friend who will be sorely missed,鈥� said Professor Ahmed White.