Professor of Humanities
503-589-8123
Education
- B.A. Master’s College
- B.A. California State University at Los Angeles
- M.A. California State University at Los Angeles
- Litt.D. Corban University
Professional
Dr. Hills has been bringing the written word alive for Corban students for 45 years. Before becoming a faculty member in 1973, Dr. Hills taught at his alma mater, The Master’s College. He has published sixty articles, some of which are collected in his two books, Garage Sale of the Mind and Other Opinions (2015), co-winner of the Cascade Award for Non-Fiction, and The Car(di)nal Mind (also 2015).
He teaches a variety of courses, including College Writing, Western Mythology, Literature of Love, and Creative Non-Fiction. He is a regular attendee of the Stinky Bagels poetry group and often contributes to the annual poetry reading.
Personal
Jim and his wife, Bonnie, have been married since 1965. Jim is from upstate New York, she’s from Long Island, and they met in college in Southern California. They have four children, six grandchildren, and twin great-grandchildren.
Jim teaches an adult Sunday School class at his church and enjoys sports, canoeing, and travel—which has led to some awkward moments, including being examined with more interest than he would have liked by a big barracuda patrolling a reef where he was snorkeling near Key Largo, and falling off of a boat into the Thames River between London and Oxford. (If you’re thinking of doing the same, here’s an important geographical note: the sea off the Florida Keys is warmer and clearer than English rivers. On the other hand, English rivers do not house large fish with teeth like finishing nails.)
Why Corban
“Corban is a place where we learn to think like Christians, and by that I do not mean that we present our students with a list of approved ideas. We help them identify the big questions, and we read and talk together about how the Christian story as revealed in Scripture speaks to these questions. In other words, we think hard about what it means to be a redeemed human being in our thinking and doing, living out what Christians understand to be our identity and our vocation.
Teaching at Corban is an ongoing joy, an exercise in love and hope. I haven’t swung a golf club in decades, and I don’t have the patience to be a good fisherman, which is to say that I’d rather teach than retire. My workplace looks like a park, I learn from very bright colleagues, and I’m energized by the wonderful students that are a daily part of my life.”