Happy 100th birthday to Aron Hill!

Charles Aron Hill of Bloomington will be celebrating his 100^th Birthday on November 1, 2021. He is best known to family and friends as Aron.

Aron was born in Childress County, Texas, as the third child in a family that boasted a total of 11 children. He grew up during the Great Depression and did not attend high school but began working at a very young age at his uncle’s ranch and other local ranches.  At the age of 14, he started working with the Civilian Conservation Corps (a Depression-era public works program initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt).  He worked in erosion control programs in New Mexico and then returned to Texas to work on the ranches. 

Soon, however, Aron hitchhiked to San Diego to join his sister and her husband; he worked washing dishes in a downtown hotel there until he received his military draft notice and returned to Texas. 

Aron intended to sign up with the Navy but was tricked by a Marine recruiter who offered dinner and a room to sign up; he became part of the U.S. Marine Corps and was sent back to San Diego for boot camp as part of the Third Marine Division, 3^rd Engineer Battalion.  He worked in the construction of projects during combat situations driving trucks and helping to build different structures as required.  He served in the South Pacific, participating in the invasion and battles for Bougainville of the Solomon Islands and in the recapture of the U.S. Territory of Guam.

At the end of WWII, Mr. Hill went home to Texas and in Fort Worth, met the love of his life – Mable Mynard.  They got married in 1946, began working, and lived in a boarding house.  That same year his oldest sister and her husband invited them to California to join the workforce at Kaiser Steel Mills in Fontana.  He joined Kaiser in 1946 working as a plate mill machine operator. He and Mable moved into the home they built in Bloomington in 1955, the same year their only child Greg was born. Aron enjoyed helping with the Bloomington Boy Scout Troop while his son was a member, taking family camping trips to the National Parks, and being active with the United Steelworkers Union activities.

Aron worked until Kaiser Steel closed, retiring in 1984 and enjoyed his home life with his wife, family and friends, and loved visiting his son at the various National Parks where Greg was employed. 

Mable passed away in 2019 and he moved to the Brookdale Senior Living facilities in Loma Linda after 65 years in their original and only home in Bloomington.

When asked about living to see 100 years, Aron jokingly said he had always tried to be a real good boy, that he had been careful not to steal watermelons in the fields he had worked in (because the farmers would poison them to thwart watermelon thieves).  He said that he had always eaten well and ate anything that was offered to him.  His life’s advice is “to be yourself, be nice, be kind to others, and life will take care of itself.”  His favorite saying is, “Be cheerful.”   

Congratulations to Aron Hill and this remarkable milestone in his life!