When Robert Hill was in elementary school in Southampton County, Virginia, state troopers would visit the local schools and interact with the students. One such visit left a literal and figurative mark on young Robert – the sharp edge of a trooper’s badge cut him. “It left a mark – you could see it after he had grown up,” recalled his widow, Melissa Branch-Hill. “It must have went deep because that’s what he wanted to do.”

He would spend 19 years fulfilling that dream, serving the people of Virginia as a state trooper. He worked patrol in different parts of the commonwealth and was also a crime prevention specialist. “If he saw someone going in the wrong direction, Robert tried to talk them out of it,” Melissa said.

But he never forgot the effect a trooper could have on kids. “Around Christmas he would get the other troopers to gather up toys and go around the neighborhoods and pass them out,” she said. “He loved it.” The tradition carries on to this day in his honor.

On Thanksgiving 2006, the Hills had a holiday dinner with both sides of their family together. “He said the most wonderful prayer just thanking everybody for being there,” his widow recalled. “It brought tears to everyone.” The next day he was making a routine traffic stop when a motorist inadvertently struck and killed him.

Every year, the Virginia State Police now give out the Senior Trooper Robert A. Hill, Sr., Crime Prevention Award to an officer who embodies the qualities which Hill lived every day. Even nearly two decades after his death, Robert’s mark endures.

“He was one of the kindest people you could ever meet,” his widow said. “He loved the kids, he loved giving toys to kids. Great husband, great father – all around good man. I don’t know what else to say.”