Henry Aaron Hill

Henry Aaron Hill (May 30, 1915 – 1979) was an American fluorocarbon chemist who became the first African American president of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Henry Hill was born on May 30, 1915, in St. Joseph, Missouri. He graduated from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1936, before completing a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1942. The title of his dissertation is "Test of Van't Hoff's Principle of Optical Superposition."

After receiving his Ph.D., Hill joined Atlantic Research Associates in Newtonville, Massachusetts, as a research chemist. He became research director there and became vice president in 1944. Hill was a civilian employee of the Office of Scientific Research and Development in 1944. In 1946, Hill moved to Dewey & Almy Chemical Co. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a research group leader. In 1952, he became assistant manager and co-founder of National Polychemicals, Inc., of Wilmington, Massachusetts. Hill founded Riverside Laboratory in 1961 for research, development, and consulting.

Hill's research focused on chemical intermediates for the production of polymer products.

Hill served on the boards of the American Chemical Society (1971–1978) and Rohm & Haas, and he was a trustee of Johnson C. Smith University. Hill also worked in the area of consumer safety, serving as chairman of the Compliance Committee of the National Motor Vehicle Safety Advisory Council and was a member of the Information Council on Fabric Flammability. In 1968, Hill was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to the National Commission on Product Safety (a predecessor to the Consumer Product Safety Commission).

The Henry Hill Award is a national award offered by the Division of Professional Relations of the ACS that recognizes "distinguished service to professionalism." The Northeastern Section of ACS awards the Henry A. Hill Award for Outstanding Service. Henry Hill was awarded (posthumously) the first Northeastern Henry Hill Award in 1980.