Hugh V. Tillman ’87

Hugh Tillman passed away on June 8, 2024 in Honolulu where he was born almost 60 years earlier. He hoped the shadows on his scans were the pink bubble gum he swallowed as a 6 year old boy. Unfortunately, the big C had taken hold of his pancreas. As a child Hugh’s dream was to become a pilot. After graduating from MMA he fulfilled that dream as a Marine, a flight instructor, a government contractor, and a commercial airline pilot. If you’re interested in the nitty-gritty of his career, he’d tell you to Google it.  However, the internet won’t mention how he influenced a fellow Marine to quit smoking by offering him $100 if he stayed away from cigarettes for the duration of their deployment; how he kept his promise to Marines and their families of anytime/anywhere by picking up a spouse and child in the middle of the night when she couldn’t drive home after having one too many at a beach picnic; or how his favorite flights were those he showed wide eyed children the cockpit of an A330 and handed them one of the pilots wings he always carried in his flight bag. Hugh was a people person. He enjoyed and lived life to its fullest. In his own words, “I lived the equivalent of 10 lives in the things I accomplished, places I was able to see, and the goals I had for myself. I have no regrets.”