Bob Hilliard keeps marching into his second century

OPINION:

We have a titanic hero in Southwest Florida. He is Bob Hilliard, who turns 101 on June 25.

Mark that Thursday as what should be a statewide holiday.

Mr. Hilliard is that consequential in a life spanning a childhood in New York City, work as a journalist, Army basic training near Jacksonville, World War II in Europe, Washington and Boston for careers in government and academia, down to Florida again at Sanibel Island and, after Hurricane Ian, Fort Myers.

He never quits, just as he dug in deep when the Nazis came on as brutally as the Battle of the Bulge’s freeze in Belgium.

“What I remember most,” he says, “is the terrible cold winter and having to use TNT to blast foxholes … for shelter and sleep. And I got frozen feet.”

He was just 19, an Army private hit by mortar shrapnel, which he overcame, receiving the Purple Heart.

That was 1945, a few months before America and its Allies clinched victory on the continent.

What Mr. Hilliard experienced at that battle was the bloodiest for American forces on the Western Front during the war, but he survived and has thrived in the 81 years since.

Thrived? That’s putting it mildly.

He has a sharp wife, JoAnn Reece, and two brilliant children, Mark Hilliard, a military historian, and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, one of the country’s leading civil liberties lawyers and co-founder and head of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund.

Over the past eight decades, Mr. Hilliard has written 50 books and produced multiple stage shows, including musicals. My wife and I enjoyed one of these, “Piccadilly,” at Fort Myers, Florida, two years ago. The production is set in London and sings of love after the war.

Can you imagine writing not only a play but also its music and lyrics? I cannot, but then, I am not Bob, the Florida Firebrand. He burns with a fervor.

The Guardians of Democracy, a group of citizen journalists and activists, felt the heat from years of demonstrations and decided to honor Mr. Hilliard with its Lifetime Award.

Mr. Hilliard responded with a message captured by Florida Weekly’s Roger Williams: “When one gets to an advanced age … much of one’s thinking turns to remembrances of the past. One wonders whether they have fulfilled their obligation as human beings to make life better for as many others as possible. My mantra has been ’Be ashamed to die until you’ve made the world a little better than you found it.’ Your generous award — the Guardian of Democracy Lifetime Award — gives me hope that I am fulfilling my mantra, my goals in life. It buoys my spirits and supports my continuing commitment to our mutual fight for democracy.”

It is a pleasure to know Bob Hilliard, who has walked the earth longer than anyone else I have known.

Think of what he has lived through: the 1927 Yankees, the Great Depression, the Berlin Airlift, Bobby Thomson’s Shot Heard ’Round the World, the Dodgers and Giants leaving New York for California, President Kennedy’s assassination, Joe Namath’s Super Bowl, the moon landings, the Miracle Mets, Secretariat, the bicentennial, the stock market’s rocket since 1982, the Berlin Wall’s tumble, Buster Douglas’ shocker over Mike Tyson, 9/11, America coming up on 250.

America 250? It will also be great to see Hilliard 101.

Happy birthday, big guy.

• Bucky Fox is an author and editor in Florida.