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The UA College of Medicine has received a $2 million gift from the Benjamin S. and Estella C. Hill Foundation to fund scholarships for medical students.

By John Brown, UA Foundation
July 1, 2009

The University of Arizona College of Medicine has received a $2 million gift from the Benjamin S. and Estella C. Hill Foundation to fund scholarships for medical students.

The late Estella Hill, a native of Arizona, requested that her life savings create an endowed scholarship fund for students to attend medical school in order to create compassionate medical care in the community. During the past 28 years, the Hill Foundation has awarded more than $1.3 million in scholarships to UA medical students.

"The Hill Foundation has been an important partner to the UA College of Medicine, helping to educate hundreds of Arizona physicians over nearly three decades," said Dr. William M. Crist, UA vice president for health affairs. "We are deeply grateful that the Foundation has elected to make this permanent investment in our students and our state's well-being. This gift comes at a critical time as we educate the state's next generation of health-care providers."

Established in 1982, the privately managed Hill Foundation is ceasing operations due to increasing administrative costs. The foundation has donated $2 million to the UA Foundation, which will manage an endowed scholarship fund for the UA College of Medicine.

"Estella would be very proud of all the students she has helped and the many patients they are now serving," said Dean F. Smith Jr., the late Mrs. Hill's court-appointed conservator and guardian. "We trust that the University will invest and steward this gift." 

Mrs. Hill's family is deeply rooted in Arizona history. Graham County bears her maiden name, and one of Arizona's greatest family feuds involved her kin.

Known as the Pleasant Valley War, the feud between the cattle-herding Graham family and the sheep-herding Tewksbury family was among the bloodiest episodes in the state's history. The 10-year feud would take the lives of 22 family members, including her father's.

The UA College of Medicine is the only medical doctor degree-granting college in the state of Arizona. Beginning in 1967 with a class of 32 students on its Tucson campus, the college today encompasses full, four-year medical-education programs in Tucson and Phoenix.

The UA Foundation is one of the largest foundations in Arizona, raising more than $100 million annually. Managing an asset base of nearly $500 million, the UA Foundation has helped generate more than $2 billion in private funding to support the UA.