They served America: Hill, Feinstein, McWilliams, and Love

At first glance Hill, Feinstein, McWilliams, and Love sounds like a group of lawyers, accountants, or doctors. But, they aren’t.

No, these people impacted America. In their own unique way, they gave us their hearts. Recently and sadly, their time on earth ran out.

Clint Hill was a Secret Service agent. At the age of 31, Mr. Hill was the agent who jumped on to the back of the presidential limousine when President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. When this occurred, I was in the fifth grade at Hillcrest Elementary School in Burlington, North Carolina. Our teacher, Mrs. Cline, was in tears.

I never knew the guilt that Agent Hill carried with him after this murder. For years, he blamed himself for not being able to react in time to save the President. Though some believe he saved the President’s wife as she attempted to help her fallen husband.

That turmoil in Dallas shadowed Agent Hill as he continued to serve three more presidents. He attempted to wash that torment away with alcohol. In 1975, Agent Hill retired from the Secret Service, and a doctor warned him, “if he didn’t stop this self-destructive behavior, he would die.”(The Week)

In the 1980s, he was able to give up alcohol.

Surprisingly, Agent Hill in 1990 made a return trip to Dallas. He visited the site of that horrible November afternoon. Perhaps, the passing of time, or the wisdom of a different angle “convinced him that he couldn’t have done anything to prevent the tragic outcome.” (The Week)

In 2024, Agent Hill was asked by an interviewer how he wanted to be remembered. He replied, “Two words, I tried.” (The Week)

John Feinstein was a gifted writer. He found success in writing about sports. Mr. Feinstein was a sports reporter for the Washington Post and the author of over forty books. Additionally, his skills as a writer allowed him to write sports novels geared for a younger audience.

In my random collection of books, I have four written by Mr. Feinstein: Forever’s Team, A Season On The Brink, A March To Madness, and A Civil War.

His gifts went beyond the printed word as he was a commentator for college basketball and football games, an adjunct professor at Duke, his alma mater, and this year, a writer-in-residence at Longwood University in Virginia.

Some might view Mr. Feinstein as a nuisance. Yet, at the heart of his work was a drive and determination to find and capture the truth in the people and topics he covered.

I think this quote from a NPR report about Mr. Feinstein captures his passion.

Barry Svrluga, a Washington Post columnist who said he took Feinstein’s sports journalism course as a senior at Duke, recalled the experience Thursday:

“He got whoever he could to talk to the class — Gary Williams on a game day when Maryland was in town, Billy Packer, Bud Collins. Bob Woodward called in,” Svrluga said. “And you could just tell that part of his reporting prowess — how he got into locker rooms and front offices and onto the range and in clubhouses at PGA Tour events — is because he could really develop relationships, and people just liked to talk to him. Part of that had to be because he didn’t pander. You knew exactly where he stood. And that gained respect.”

My takeaway from this remembrance is “he could really develop relationships.” No matter where we walk in our lives building relationships is critical.

Unlike Mr. Hill, Mr. Feinstein, and Miss Love, I had the privilege of knowing Jody McWilliams. He was a member of our church. And if there was one person in this world who had a clear understanding for the importance of building relationships, it was Jody McWilliams.

Mr. McWilliams understood the importance of commitment in those relationships. His commitment, his loyalty impacted his wife, their children, and their families. Those qualities applied to his service to the United States Army, the United Methodist Church, and as the Executive Director of the William Byrd Community House in the Oregon Hill neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia.

For thirty three years, he served in that role, and he once told the Richmond Times-Dispatch: “We are in business to serve the working poor, people who fall through the cracks. We serve people from birth until death, from the womb to the tomb.” During his tenure, close to 4,000 people used the services available from the William Byrd Community House on an annual basis.

With three master’s degrees, Mr. McWilliams also taught at the collegiate level. There he instructed and mentored future social workers. He gave them some very wise advice as they started their careers: “Be open to learn from those you serve.”

Until I read her obituary in the April 4, 2025 edition of The Week, I knew very little about Mia Love.

Mia Love was the daughter of Haitian immigrants. In 2014, Miss Love became the first black Republican elected to serve in Congress from the state of Utah.

In The Week’s summary of her life, several items caught my attention. She was opposed to the 2016 election of Donald Trump as President of America.

At a Republican caucus meeting, she pushed back against a member of the caucus who made unflattering remarks about Haiti. Miss Love said, “If you don’t see me as an equal, you can remove me from this conference, and if we don’t see everyone as equal under God we have a bigger problem.”

In 2022, she learned that brain cancer was raging inside of her. That cancer ended her political career.

Before her death, Miss Love wrote: “I believe the American experiment is not a setting sun, but a rising sun. We must fight to keep the America we know.”

Unless you have been able to block out the turmoil and chaos coming out of Washington, “the America we know” is under attack. Piece by piece, it is being dismantled.

This disgraceful dismantling is impacting a wide range of people in America.

As Americans, we must work to counter this dismantling. We must regain Clint Hill’s courage, reclaim our voices to question like John Feinstein, recapture the unshakeable endurance of Jody McWilliams, and recommit to fight for America like Mia Love.

And in that fight for America, we need leaders in our country to embrace Mr. McWilliams’ logic: “Be open to learn from those you serve.”

While Hill, Feinstein, McWilliams, and Love might not have been a group of lawyers, doctors, or accountants, it is clear they were a group of human beings who possessed hearts that cared and who were willing “to learn” from the people they served.

At this very moment, we can’t “pander.”

We have to do more than “try.”

We must exhaust every ounce of our strength to build the “relationships” needed to save the imperfect soul of the America that “we know.”