Hours before she died, community leader Kathy Hill-Young raised money at a wine-sipping soiree to purchase Christmas gifts for older, needy children.
That last act of kindness was typical of her life, say friends and family of Hill-Young, who died Friday night after a hit-and-run in east Denver.
She touched thousands of lives through her work as executive director of the Lowry Family Center, where she helped train foster parents, tutored children and ran summer camps, among other services.
Her oldest son, Steven Hill, helped facilitate adoptions at the center.
“She was a born social worker from the time she was a little kid. She said she always wanted to give,” Hill said of his mother, 51. “She would never, ever be selfish, my mother. No matter what the sacrifice was.”
After the charity event Friday, Hill-Young and a handful of friends and family planned to celebrate the fundraiser’s success. A speeding van ran over Hill-Young about 11:30 p.m. as she crossed the street near York Street and East 40th Avenue. The van crashed into an iron fence and sped off, said her daughter-in-law Bazette Hill, who witnessed the incident.
Police described the vehicle as a dark-colored conversion van with front-end damage.
“We decided to go out, enjoy the night and have fun with each other,” Bazette Hill said. “I can’t describe in words what she meant to me. We weren’t just mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. We were friends.”
Hill-Young’s death shocked Denver’s network of community-outreach and family-resource centers.
She was a former professor at Metro State College and the University of Colorado Denver. She founded the Lowry Family Center in Montbello and north Aurora about a decade ago and worked with the city of Denver’s Human Services Department to provide crisis services to families in need.
It was through that work that Human Services Department administrator Margaret Booker met Hill- Young, who distinguished herself by working hands-on with families while running the center.
“Families are going to be devastated by this news. . . . She was so proud of her community and such a leader,” Booker said. “This is a huge loss.”
She is survived by her husband, Fred Young; her daughter, Shatawna Young, 19; and three sons, Steven Hill Jr., 31, Chris Hill, 27, and Austin Young, 20. Memorial arrangements were not yet made Sunday evening.
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com
