Campus News

Founders Memorial Garden courtyard to be named in honor of acclaimed professor

Founders Memorial Garden courtyard to be named in honor of acclaimed professor

Athens, Ga. – A brick courtyard in the University of Georgia Founders Memorial Garden will be officially named for Robert J. Hill, a professor of landscape architecture in the UGA College of Environment and Design for 30 years. The naming ceremony will take place April 16, at 6:30 p.m.

For 20 years, Hill also served as director of the Founders Memorial Garden, where the courtyard is located. He worked to renovate and preserve the iconic North Campus site, a relaxed outdoor setting for teaching, studying, and social functions popular in CED and throughout the university.

Hill was an authority on regional plants and a lifelong member of the university community, earning both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from UGA. Over the course of his career, he received an award for excellence from the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, served as president of the Georgia chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and held numerous other distinguished positions and honors. He died in August 2007, at age 73, at his mountain home in Clayton, Ga.

The Robert J. Hill Courtyard is the first piece of UGA property in CED stewardship to be approved for naming by the Board of Regents. It is located just behind the Founders Garden House, tucked between the kitchen house and smokehouse in the center of the Founders Garden complex.

For more information about the Founders Memorial Garden, see http://www.ced.uga.edu/founders