Susan Hilles, Radcliffe Library Donor, Dies at 96

Susan Morse Hilles, former Radcliffe College trustee and major donor who devoted her life to art, educated and the advancement of women, died Jan. 1 at Mass. General Hospital. She was 96.

Hilles served as a Radcliffe trustee from 1962 through 1974, a period of major change for Radcliffe—including becoming more closely affiliated with Harvard.

“During the tenure of four Radcliffe College presidents, she helped to shape and strengthen Radcliffe’s position as a leading intellectual center for women,” said Drew Gilpin Faust, current dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

“Hilles has left an unparalleled legacy at Radcliffe and will be remembered for her intellect and vision, as well as her extraordinary commitment and transformative gifts to Radcliffe’s major initiatives,” Faust said.

Hilles, who studied art at the Museum School of the Museum of Fine Art in Boston but did not complete a college degree, became very involved in Radcliffe later in her life.

“Hilles adopted Radcliffe College as her own,” wrote Whitney Espich, director of communications for Radcliffe, in an e-mail.

Hilles donated to construction of several Radcliffe buildings, including funding the construction of Hilles Library, named after Hilles and her late husband and Yale Professor Frederick W. Hilles, and its Morse Music Library, named after Hilles’ mother. These libraries later became part of the Harvard College Libraries system.

Later, Hilles donated her personal papers to Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library.

Outside of her work at Radcliffe, Hilles was devoted to advancing women’s issues, serving as active member in the Birth Control League, an organization that worked to get birth control first legalized in Connecticut.

Hilles also was active in art and educational institutions in Boston and throughout the country, including the Boston Athenaeum, a private library and art gallery.

“Susan Hilles was the first woman trustee [of the Athenaeum] and was long involved in our fine arts program,” said Richard Wendorf, the Athenaeum’s director and librarian.

Particularly involved the Athenaeum’s art gallery, Hilles donated a number of portraits by Gerald Kelly as well as work by artist Alexander Calder. She also endowed the position of Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at the Athenaeum.

Hilles collected many works of art, particularly of 20th century artists who had not yet become famous. Instead of keeping this art for private viewing, Hilles displayed works in her collection at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston—where a gallery is named in her honor—as well as the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, and galleries at Harvard, Yale and Mount Holyoke College.

Hilles is survived by two children, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.