Even as Russian forces massed on the border with Ukraine and the U.S. government urged Americans to leave the country, Jimmy Hill didn’t flee. Instead, he drove even closer to Russian territory in search of treatment for his life partner, who was sick.
James Whitney Hill, 67, was killed by Russian artillery fire in Ukraine this week, at least the second American to die there since the invasion began Feb. 24. Before his death, he touched lives around the world through teaching and storytelling, friends and family told USA TODAY.
“He had worked tirelessly to find her treatment and refused to leave her bedside when the invasion began in Ukraine,” his family said in a statement Friday about his life partner, Irina Teslenko, who has multiple sclerosis.
Hill and Teslenko drove the four hours from Khorol to Chernihiv in northeastern Ukraine days before the invasion. There, Hill documented the deteoriating situation in a series of Facebook posts.
Hill died Thursday when he ventured outside the hospital to find food for patients, nurses and neighbors, as well as to find a way to communicate with loved ones abroad, family said.
“He remained true to his love for her, his love for the Ukrainians, and his love for humanity until his death,” family said. “In such disasters and crises, may we all be blessed to find someone like Jimmy.”
Anton Gerashchenko, the adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, confirmed Hill’s death on a verified Telegram account, sharing an image of Hill’s passport.
Hill was born in Minnesota and graduated from Mahtomedi High School in 1973. He was one of five children, said Karin Moseley, a longtime friend who lives in the town near where they grew up.
After graduating, Hill initially enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, Moseley said. He traveled the world and eventually settled down in Washington state, where he worked for the state government. He married, had two sons, divorced and began to travel again, she said.
Hill taught in Ukraine and throughout Europe for more than 20 years and recently purchased property in Idaho and Montana, where he loved to go fly-fishing, Moseley said. He rented out a couple of the properties on Airbnb.
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Moseley visited Hill at his Idaho home in October and said, in recent years, Hill had been traveling back and forth more frequently between the U.S. and Ukraine.
Many who knew Hill said he would host speaking clubs for English learners whenever he came to Kyiv, through student groups and in the living rooms of friends’ apartments.
“Jimmy was not only a teacher, he was kind of a celebrity guy. Everyone who speaks English knows him very well because he organized a lot of initiatives about psychology, speaking clubs,” said Denys Dniprovskyi, 36, who met Hill in 2010 when he was taking English courses in Kyiv.
Dniprovskyi’s wife, Violetta Dniprovska, said Hill once brought his son to a speaking group. She spoke with USA TODAY on the phone Friday evening from western Ukraine, where she fled to from Kyiv and is staying with the couple’s two children and cat.
Her husband remains in Kyiv. “He was really brave man and a really loyal friend,” he said Friday night as he drove around Ukraine’s capital distributing food and medicine sent from Poland.
Hill traveled frequently and lectured in several other countries – including the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Austria and Romania – teaching English and psychology, according to friends and a resume sent to one school and viewed by USA TODAY.
“He was very deep, very kind,” said Olga Nikolaienko, who said she first met Hill in 2011 when he was teaching English at a school called Britishway in Kyiv. “He was a people person.”
Nearly every summer since 2014, Hill taught at the Prague Summer School on Crime, Law and Psychology, a one-week course on the application of psychological approaches and research methods to criminal justice.
Denmark-based student Nadine Hollmann, 26, who attended the school in 2017, recalled Hill as a passionate lecturer who loved meeting new people and learning about different cultures. “He left his mark on anyone he met along the way,” she told USA TODAY.
Egle Havrdova, director of the school, said she and Hill used to joke about planning a trip to one of Hill’s properties in the U.S. near Yellowstone National Park. She said Hill was popular among students “because he was able to tell the true stories to illustrate the theoretical concepts he was teaching.”
“He was brave and had a wonderful sense of humor, which helped him to survive the difficulties related to the health problems of his partner,” she said.
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Since 2016, Hill taught English and psychology with Education Assembly, an educational volunteer organization in Kyiv, said coordinator Ivan Vasyliuk, 30.
“We can’t believe until reading about the tragedy from the news. U.S. government advised to leave Ukraine, but Jimmy stayed,” Vasyliuk said. “This is truly a great loss for our organization and Ukraine.”
Employees of Education Assembly are now fighting in the armed forces, waging war against disinformation and volunteering locally, Vasyliuk said.
As Russian forces drew closer to Chernihiv and the hospital lost heat, Hill documented the conditions he faced on Facebook.
“I have no way of charging phone. I should preserve power,” he wrote on Facebook March 11. The next day, he added: “Power out no gas no water.”
“We are trapped in Chernihiv,” he wrote on Facebook March 13. “They bomb here every night. People discouraged. Food shortages, gas, running water, some electricity… there is a siege here…”
Hill’s last post, on March 15, read: “Intense bombing! still alive. Limited food. Room very cold. Ira in intensive care.”
Family and friends say they have not been able to contact Hill’s partner in Chernihiv.
“I want everyone to know she’s still there,” Moseley said. “We’re not honoring Jimmy if we sit there and let her get bombed in a hospital.”
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