By Rich Pollack
HIGHLAND BEACH — Highland Beach was a perfect match for Bev Hillman.
“She was a small-town person,” her husband, Highland Beach Mayor Doug Hillman, said about his wife of 54 years, who died on Jan. 16. “She was always very comfortable in those places.”Mrs. Hillman, who battled COPD for the last several years, was 76.
“She truly was the love of my life and my partner,” Mr. Hillman said.
Originally from Danbury, Connecticut, Beverly Hillman met her husband while both were in separate colleges. They spent a few years in Connecticut before moving to Maryland, where they remained for three decades.
During those years, Mrs. Hillman served as an informal adviser to her husband, a business executive who held several corporate positions including as president of London Fog, maker of raincoats and other apparel.
“I would always share business decisions with her,” Mr. Hillman said. “She was my rock.”
It was in 2009, when the Hillmans decided to become snowbirds, that Mrs. Hillman fell in love with Highland Beach and with the condominium apartment they bought in the Boca Highland Beach Club & Marina.
“She was just incredibly happy here,” Mr. Hillman said. “She spent many of her days on the balcony overlooking the Intracoastal.”
Oftentimes she took a book or a crossword puzzle out there.
Mrs. Hillman was a golfer and boater who enjoyed vacations on the couple’s boat. She loved to travel, with Venice, Italy, one of her favorite places. She and Mr. Hillman also spent parts of a dozen years vacationing with friends on the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Mrs. Hillman was at home surrounded by family when she died. She is survived by her husband; son Michael; daughter-in-law Michelle; granddaughter Molli, and grandson Miles.
A gathering and brief ceremony in Mrs. Hillman’s memory were held at the Boca Highland Beach Club & Marina.
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