A funeral will take place in Vancouver Friday for U.S. Marine Corps veteran Bill Hillgaertner, who was Camas chief of police through the 1980s.
Already weakened by mesothelioma, Hillgaertner became ill toward the end of an international cruise and died after several days in a Japanese hospital Oct. 17. He was 79.
Tributes will be paid during his 4 p.m. funeral at Evergreen Memorial Gardens, 1101 N.E. 112th Ave., Vancouver.
After his military service with the Marine Corps, Hillgaertner had a lengthy career in public service that straddled police and fire departments.
Hillgaertner hired Mitch Lackey and presented him with his police certificate when he graduated from the State Police Academy in the 1980s. Now Lackey is Camas police chief.
“He was always supportive of the staff and believed in training and education as a means to improve professionalism in law enforcement,” Lackey said.
Hillgaertner graduated from Hillsboro (Ore.) High School at 16, became a volunteer firefighter for Orenco and joined the Oregon Air National Guard/Air Force Reserve at 17. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1958, attaining the rank of lance corporal before being selected for four years of study at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Hillgaertner graduated in 1963 as a second lieutenant and served in the Dominican Republic before training as a translator-interrogator. He served two tours in Vietnam, earning multiple medals and unit citations. His combat experience included the 1968 Tet Offensive, just before he left the Marine Corps.
His daughter, Nona Hillgaertner Mallicoat, served in the Marine Corps for 10 years before embarking on a career with the Washington Employment Security Department. Both provided leadership to the Lewis and Clark Young Marine Program. Bill Hillgaertner was also a charter member of the Columbia River Detachment of the Marine Corps League, serving as its first commandant in 1992.
He worked as an arson investigator, river patrol officer and a detective for the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. He completed his master’s degree in public administration at Lewis and Clark College and worked as a trial assistant in Benton County, Ore., before moving to Camas as chief in 1979, serving until 1992. The latter part of his tenure was as director of public safety when Camas police and fire departments combined, an experiment that was later reversed.
After leaving Camas, he worked in security for Intel and concluded his law enforcement career with the Washington State Patrol truck inspection department in north Clark County.
Aside from his police job in Camas, he was active in community affairs, serving on the board of Community Chest, Camas-Washougal Special Olympics and the Kiwanis Cub of Greater Camas-Washougal.
Sense of fun
His sense of fun helped create the Camas Marching Kazoo Band, which performed in parades. He was a 1983 founder of Blue Parrot Theatre Co., serving on its board and appearing in productions. He was usually cast in small roles, except when the troupe performed “Play It Again, Sam” and he portrayed the ghost of Humphrey Bogart. He and his family also performed with the Champoeg Historical Pageant in Oregon.
In retirement, he worked part time for a natural foods company in Ridgefield and was a keen supporter of La Center school sports and the Young Marines program.
He traveled extensively, alone or with his children, visiting Maryland and Virginia, home to the Naval Academy, Quantico, the National Marine Corps Museum and FBI Academy. Personal trips included Iceland, Scotland and England. A couple of years ago, he decided to drive the trans-Canada highway from coast to coast. Less than a week later, he began a solo journey that lasted more than four weeks.
His final trip was a 19-day cruise through Alaskan waters to Russia and Japan. He was taken ill before the ship was to sail back to the U.S., and his condition deteriorated over several days. His daughter, who had accompanied him on the cruise, was at his hospital bedside in Yokohama when he died Oct. 17.
Hillgaertner, of La Center, is survived by two children, Leon Hillgaertner and Nona Hillgaertner Mallicoat, both of La Center; one grandson, Hunter, a student at La Center High School; two brothers and one sister.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the William Hillgaertner Scholarship, NW Regiment of the Young Marines, P.O. Box 357, La Center, WA 98629, or in his name to the National Museum of the Marine Corps — www.usmcmuseum.com.
Retired journalist Patrick Webb was editor of the Camas Post-Record from 1980 to 1986.
