Former Cornell professor establishes fund in late wife's name at Tompkins library

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After his wife Meg died to cancer in 2014, Ron Hilton wanted to continue her legacy as a children's art teacher. He established the The Margaret Johnstone Hilton Children’s Endowment Fund at Tompkins County Public Library to provide art classes for preschoolers. Sarah Mearhoff

Ron Hilton, a retired Cornell University accounting professor, and Meg Hilton, a former children’s art teacher, met in 1969 — set up on what Ron refers to as a “doubly blind date” for Meg’s sorority pledge formal at Penn State University.

Ron's roommate knew Meg's sorority "big sister," but that was Ron and Meg's only connection. And with the formal festivities lasting a whole weekend, Ron called the date "risky." But Ron and Meg clicked, staying up all night talking on a bench outside of Meg's dorm even after spending the entire weekend together.

“It was great, great time,” Hilton said, shaking his head and smiling, recounting his memories with Meg while sitting in the Tompkins County Public Library. “We started dating and the rest was history.”

The library — located in downtown Ithaca where Ron and Meg lived for 38 years and raised their two sons — is where Ron decided to establish a fund in Meg’s name following her death to cancer in 2014. The fund was established in 2016.

The Margaret Johnstone Hilton Children’s Endowment Fund, through Ron’s initial donation and others’ contributions to the endowment, will continue Meg’s lifelong work by funding arts programs held at the library for preschool age children.

"It's wonderful to be able to pay tribute to Meg Hilton's life, thanks to the endowed fund set up in her name," Library Executive Director Suzanne Jablonski said via email. "Meg was devoted to encouraging preschoolers to develop a love of the arts and of reading, so we are honored that we'll be able to keep her passions alive, for years to come, at the library."

Meg was an elementary school arts teacher in Pennsylvania and Ohio before moving to Ithaca with Ron when he was offered a job with Cornell. Despite offers to move elsewhere over the years, Ron said he and Meg always decided to stay: Meg loved the city's natural beauty and "quirkiness."

In Ithaca, Meg was a preschool teacher at Ellis Hollow Nursery School and volunteer with the Family Reading Partnership in Ithaca — as Ron called her, "a very talented educator and a very loving teacher."

“She was very dedicated to the children and had a passion for teaching and for just being with them and loving them," Ron said. "A lot of teaching young children is just loving them.”

Throughout her career, Ron said Meg encouraged children to be creative, helping them dream of stories and illustrate them, exposing them to art by giving tours of museums, and asking them how art made them feel.

“It was very important to her the art, especially that children do, be spontaneous and unstructured, unguided,” Hilton said. “She wasn’t for having a stencil. It was always very creative stuff, whether it be finger-painting or a collage.”

This education and creative nurturing was something Hilton said he wanted to continue in Meg’s name. At Cornell, Hilton said it was common for him to see endowments as a way to recognize people after they died, so establishing a fund to continue Meg’s work felt natural.

“It was generous thing for the donor to do, but it was also a way of recognizing the person, and most importantly, allowing certain programs to be pursued that might not otherwise be pursued,” Hilton said. “And I knew that Meg would like the idea of enabling [children’s arts] programs to be pursued.”

Not only did Hilton want to continue Meg’s work, but he also wanted her to be remembered for the “gracious and loving and caring” person she was.

“I mean, you can almost see it in her face,” Hilton said, looking down at the framed photo of him and Meg he carefully unwrapped on the library table a few minutes prior. “Her appearance instilled in all of those kids to be accepting of people whoever they are.”

It was her work and demeanor that made Meg memorable, Hilton said. Hilton said Meg would often get recognized by former students, or be sent thank you notes by students year after they left nursery school.

Now, 48 years since staying up all night talking on a bench in State College, Pa., Ron is finding a way to continue Meg's legacy in Ithaca through his fund with the library.

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