Hiltons leaving Altamont home

ALTAMONT — Keen Hilton was baptized in St. John’s Church, and he hasn’t been able to get away from it since.

With a Siren’s call, it has drawn him back to the village more than once, and given him a piece of himself with each return.
Born in the same room that his father died in, in a house on Main Street, Hilton can trace his roots through generations in the village, as can his wife, Marge Hilton. She moved in just a few blocks away from that house at 174 Main St. when she was 12. They grew up in a village where "everybody was like your parents," Keen Hilton said of the close-knit community.
"Everybody knew everybody," added his wife.

Drafted into the Second World War at the age of 18, Hilton fought in the Battle of the Bulge and carried the weight of the war’s bloodiest battle for years.
"For a while, I wasn’t believing in God," he said.
When he was home again, St. John’s was calling and he went one Sunday with his mother. En route, "A car went by and a beautiful, golden-haired girl waved to me," he said. At church, she was singing in the choir and, through the whole service, he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
That girl was Marge Hilton, who would be his bride three short years later. In the meantime, he got a degree from Union College, and "she set the wedding one week after graduation," he said, with a hint of surprise still in his voice.
As a newlywed, he worked for a while in a division of General Electric, until, he said, "I got the itch I couldn’t scratch."

On his wife’s good advice, Hilton entered seminary in Gettysburg and, after completing his second three-year degree, the couple moved to Central Bridge, N.Y. where they stayed five years and welcomed three babies to the world.
Then, Hilton got a call from his cousin, Mimi, who grew-up on the top floor of his childhood home. She said of St. John’s, "We’re down to 35 people worshipping on a Sunday."

So he heeded the call, and returned to the village, with family in tow.
"I tried in my preaching, and in my way of life, to present a loving Jesus, as I know him, to people," he said. People responded and attendance rose. "The open secret of my ministry was to love people like Jesus loved," he said.
Surely, Hilton put his whole self into his ministry. He recalled a scene from the movie Patton where the war-worn general walks onto the still smoking battlefield and says, "God, but I love it all."
"Leaving the hospital at 2 a.m.," after having seen a parishioner, Hilton said, "I’d look up at the sky and think, ‘God, but I love it.’"

Now retired from the ministry, Keen and Marge Hilton will be leaving the village, and St. John’s, for Baldwinsville, N.Y., where they have family; after all the generations of their families that lived in Altamont, none of their children settled here.

A farewell celebration will be held in their honor at the Home Front Café in Altamont on Oct. 21 from 3 to 6 p.m. and a community-wide service will be held, also in their honor, at St. John’s Church on Oct. 27 at 4 p.m.
"It sounds trite to say that we have loved every minute, because there have been tough times," said Keen Hilton. "Really, I loved it all."