Irene Ziegler Hill papers and photographs

Irene Ziegler was born in Ohio in 1906. She studied music at the University of Akron and Oberlin College, graduating from Oberlin in 1928. From 1928 to 1939, Ziegler taught piano and public school music at Berea College. She also led student music ensembles. In 1939 she married J. Ernest Hill, a 1936 Berea graduate. The couple moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where they lived for 33 years. Irene Ziegler Hill died in Bristol, Virginia, in 1972. The Berea Alumnus issue of May - June 1972 published these additional insights:

Mrs. Hill had taught school at every level, pre-school through college. After conducting a demonstration school in Kentucky, she did a great deal of radio and television work, conducting her own educational television television show for years. At the time of her death, Mrs. Hill was supervisor of elementary music for the Jefferson County Board of Education. Long active in Alpha Delta Kappa Honorary Sorority for Women Educators, she had held offices on all levels, and founded the International Altruistic Program, A.D.K.-I.T.E., a unique and very successful venture. Mrs. Hill, who won a Freedom's Foundation Award in 1963, was a member and officer in all of the major professional music and education associations; served on the boards of many civic organizations in Birmingham; was state Chairman of Cultural Arts of Alabama; and was an executive board member of the Festival of Arts. She had also served as Minister of Music at the Fairfield Methodist Church for many years, but was a member of the First Methodist Church at her death. (page 35.)