MIDDLEBURY — Hilton H. Dier Jr., 93, of Middlebury died on Monday, April 27, 2020, at Porter Hospital in Middlebury. He was born Feb. 16, 1927, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Hilton H. Dier and Margaret MacFarlane Dier.
Hilton grew up in Lake George, N.Y., where his father was the town doctor. After graduating from high school in 1944, Hilton enlisted in the U.S. Army as an infantryman. He was eventually assigned to the Army of Occupation in Germany, where he served at the General Headquarters in Frankfurt. Hilton graduated from SUNY Albany in 1950, and Harvard Law School in 1956.
After being admitted to the Vermont Bar in 1957, Hilton clerked for Federal District Court Judge Ernest Gibson, practiced law in Brattleboro, and served as Deputy Attorney General. He was appointed to the Vermont District Court in 1968, serving in Addison County, and to the Vermont Superior Court in 1975, retiring in 1989.
Hilton is survived by his wife of 62 years, Martha (nee Chanutin), his son Hilton III, his daughter Cary, and a very spoiled Shi-Poo named Aggi.
Due to the current quarantine restrictions, no memorial is planned at this time. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to Doctors Without Borders and Homeward Bound, the Middlebury animal shelter.◊