Ralph Hillman

When I was 14 years old I fell 30 feet from the top of a corn crib on a neighbor’s farm next door to ours in southwest Iowa.

I suffered a skull fracture, concussion, sprained shoulder and compressed thoracic vertebra. I was unconscious for 9 days. I experienced an ‘out-of-body’ experience and believe I was told by Jesus to return. While I enjoyed the joy and peace of Heaven, I was angered by having to leave all that and return.

My dream of being a farmer was shattered. The family farm was not going to be something that I could work, with my body not able to cooperate. The weakened right arm and upper back were the source of continuous pain. Weekly chiropractic adjustments kept me limber and allowed me to work at regaining muscle strength.

To make matters worse hay fever, being allergic to ragweed, dry hay and dust, was going to work in a rural farm environment.

My mother thought I might make a good speaker, possibly a minister. She encouraged the English teacher at our high school to get me involved in the state forensic program. There were 16 students in my HS class and I was the only one interested in speaking. So, I practiced, entered contests and won awards as a speaker. I was reluctant, but beginning to really enjoy the experience. I did like being up front and speaking, in fact, I had a need to speak.

The minister at our church was encouraged by my mother to have me deliver the sermon at the next ‘youth Sunday’.

Our local banker was a member of my church and saw me deliver that sermon. He believed my message was valuable and asked me to address the regional banking executive group meeting at our local hotel. My professional speaking career was off and running. I continued to speak, most often for no fee, every year since, because I thoroughly enjoyed what I was doing and people seemed to enjoy listening to me. Back then, over 60 years ago, I was focused mostly on citizenship and being responsible.

College classes exposed me to the elements of voice and diction; my focus moved to helping good citizens sound, look and feel better. Audiences loved it. Key note speeches are still my favorite.

The business community utilized me as a communication consultant. My college students learned first-hand the communication needs required to succeed in business.

Professional Organizations wanted me to do workshops, sharing my classroom material and business experience with their membership.

So, for over 50 years I have had the best of both worlds; academia and business. Working both jobs kept me “on my toes” in both. The time crunch, working all day as a teacher, then evenings and weekends as a speaker/trainer/consultant, often made scheduling life activities awkward but the rewards, financial and personal, made it worthwhile.

As a college professor, publishing is part of what has to be done: Delivering Dynamic Presentations is a good example of my work

Thirty five years ago our families’ world was turned upside down. I had an awesome wife and three beautiful children. We loved visiting the beach at Gulf Shores and vacationing at an island in Ontario, Canada. The year Elvis ‘left the room’ our middle child, Jeffrey, contracted Reyes Syndrome. I continued my responsibilities with the University but the speaking/training/consulting had to be put on the back burner. I needed to devote all my time and energy to Jeff and my family.

After a couple years of Jeff’s recovery, I was able to slowly begin to rebuild my professional life outside the university environment. The details of the miracles Jeff had experienced and continued to experience were added to my presentation content. My audiences loved it and wanted to learn more and to vicariously be a part of Jeff’s recovery.

Bill Conger was one of those students who heard all about Jeff, because he took most of the courses I taught. (I shared the good news of Jeff’s recovery in the final minutes of class time when students who did not want to hear about Jeff or Jesus could leave; few did.) Bill felt moved to collect those stories into a book about Jeff. That process of collecting and writing continued for over 20 years. Finally, a couple years ago, he had what he felt was the best he could do. He had interviewed our family members, friends, doctors and everyone else who might have something to add to Jeff’s story. His book was a collection of those stories. He had done the very best a journalist could do with the information he was given. He suggested that we needed a Christian editor to put his material into a much better ‘story form’. Bethany was hired and the rest was history. We self-published through WestBow Press and August, 2013, the book, Rejoice in the LORD Always: the Jeff Hillman Story became a reality.

I am honored to be Jeff Hillman’s Dad.