Hildreth (Hil) Strode, a former Rotary Club of Norfolk member who passed away last December, left a charitable bequest of $11,051.45 to the Norfolk Rotary Endowment. The generous gift has been received and added to the club's endowment managed by the Hampton Roads Community Foundation. Hil's generosity will enable our club's endowment to support more grantmaking to benefit our community. This is the third bequest the endowment has received since its founding in 1992.
Hil was a native of Lynchburg who earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Swarthmore College and a masters in administration and economics from Princeton University. He enjoyed a career in New York with General Electric and other companies, including Strode Computer Corp. Hil was an inventor who built a floating amphibious Jeep and a 48-pound folding motorcycle. He moved to Norfolk in 1996 and was a member of our cub from 1999 to 2015. He founded the Career Start work-study program and was involved with the Salvation Army Hampton Roads Command.