Lorna Mills Hill ’73

Lorna Mills Hill ’73 died on June 30 at home in Buffalo, New York, of causes related to cancer. A graduate of Philadelphia High School for Girls, Lorna attended Wellesley for two years before transferring to Dartmouth in 1971 as a member of the first group of women admitted to the College. She majored in history and participated regularly in campus and local theater productions. In 1973 Lorna founded the Black Underground Theater and Arts Association to perform theatrical pieces not typically represented within the Dartmouth community. She moved to Buffalo in 1974 to join her husband-to-be, Michael E. Hill ’74, and earned a master’s in theater from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1978. The same year Lorna founded in Buffalo the Ujima Company Inc., dedicated to preserving and performing Black theater, and was its artistic director for 41 years. Her career in theater and the arts included creative work as a poet, playwright, director, and performer on stage, in commercials, and in television. From 2008 to 2015 Lorna taught theater arts at the Buffalo Academy of Visual and Performing Arts, a public magnet middle and high school. Throughout her adult life she was an activist for the rights of women and for people of color. Lorna’s marriage ended in divorce, and she regarded as her greatest accomplishment her raising two children as a single head of household. She is survived by her son, Amilcar, and her daughter, Zoe.