A memorial funeral mass was offered Dec. 22 at Our Lady of Grace Church, Hoboken, for Hugh Kilmer. He died Dec. 17th in Pensacola, Fla. He was born in Arlington, Va. to Kenton and Francis Kilmer, who were the children of the famous poet, Joyce Kilmer, and American Impressionist painter, Frederick Frieseke. Artistic, intellectually inspired and spiritually from a young age, Hugh attended St. Charles and St Mary’s seminaries and received a master’s degree in communication from Fairfield University. He taught English, philosophy and theology at Salve Regina University where he met and fell in love with Elizabeth Hines.
They married and worked together in the Civil Rights Movement, ultimately settling in Hoboken, where they raised five children and were active community organizers. Hugh was a published writer and worked with the Hoboken Arts Council, United Child Services, Hoboken Community Development Agency and Accountants for the Public Interest as well as developing arts grant programs with Citibank. He organized and hosted a life drawing workshop and ran a mural project for youth as well as creating numerous murals himself, many of which were enjoyed in and around Hoboken for more than a decade. His spirit can be seen in his five children: Michael Hugh, Benjamin Edward, Caroline Francis Kilmer-Setrakian, Anna Dwyer Skinner and Daniel Tobias, ten grandchildren, as well as numerous other people with whom he shared influences and loves, including five brothers, five sisters, the Hoboken community and his wife, Beth. Services arranged by the Failla-McKnight Funeral Home, Hoboken.