Age:  35
Served: 13 years
1929 to July 15, 1942

Newly promoted (June 1, 1942) Sergeant Hille, of 1857 Ashbrook Place, responded to a report of a smell of gas on July 15th, 1942, at the Hodge Drive-it-Yourself Co., 511 Sycamore Street between 6th Street and 7th Street.  As he walked into the building, about 11:25 p.m., the gas vapors exploded.  Sergeant Hille’s body was hurled fifty feet in the air, over the Saint Xavier Grade School and ended up in an alley behind the Convent of Notre Dame.  He was killed instantly from a comminuted skull fracture.  Four others were killed and sixteen others were injured, some critically. 

Sergeant Hille was survived by his wife, Alice, and four children, Betty Jane (17), Audrey May (15), Carl, Jr. (9), and Carol Lou (3).  He was also survived by a brother, Louis Hille, an Army captain who died two years later in another explosion; this one of a mine six weeks after D-Day while he was saving the life of a war correspondent.  He was buried in Vine Street Cemetery on July 18, 1942.

Luke Putnick, Sergeant Hille’s great grandson, joined the Cincinnait Police Department 62 years later during 2004. .

Sergeant Hille had been a legendary fast-pitch softball pitcher.  In 1922, he started 69 games and lost only one.  In 1954, the Cincinnati Recreation Commission converted what was once known as Lucky Circus grounds into a baseball field and in 1960 dedicated the field in Sergeant Hille's memory.  Over the years the field fell into disrepair.  During the mid-1990s Elder High School repaired the field and used it as its home field.  On April 18, 1998, the field was rededicated as the Carl F. Hille Memorial Field.

If you have further information, artifacts, or pictures of this officer, please contact the Museum Director at Director@GCPHS.com.