If you didn’t know him by name, you likely recognize the famous image of the United States Secret Service (USSS) agent leaping onto the back of John F. Kennedy’s limousine after the president was shot in Dallas in 1963. That Special Agent was Clint Hill, who served nearly two decades in the USSS over five presidential administrations: Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford.
Hill received U.S. Secret Service awards for his actions that day, but for decades blamed himself for Kennedy’s death, saying he didn’t react quickly enough and would gladly have given his life to save the president, according to the Associated Press. He remained with Mrs. Kennedy, Caroline, and John Jr. for one year after the assassination, became the Special Agent in Charge of Presidential Protection during the Johnson administration, and eventually an assistant director of the USSS Protective Operations. However, Hill was forced to retire early, in 1975, because of the trauma of those 1963 events, what we now know to be post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“Clint Hill was more than a hero — he was a man of profound humility, dedication, and unwavering integrity,” former USSS Director Lew Merletti said in a statement.
Hill was born in 1932 and grew up in Washburn, North Dakota. He graduated Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, with a degree in History and Physical Education in 1954, and was then drafted into the United States Army, where he served as a Special Agent in the Army Counter Intelligence Corps. He applied and was accepted into the Secret Service in 1958. He worked in the agency’s Denver office for about a year, before joining the elite group of agents assigned to protect President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the first family.
Clint and his wife Lisa McCubbin Hill, who served as co-author of his books about his USSS years, were instrumental in helping build the National Law Enforcement Museum. As Craig Floyd, Founding CEO Emeritus of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, stated, “You will be missed, my friend, but never forgotten!”
“Hill’s heroism on November 22, 1963, during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, made him a worldwide symbol of courage and a revered icon in the U.S. Secret Service. Hill leaves behind an extraordinary legacy of leadership, bravery, and historical preservation,” his family said in their statement.
In December 2013, the U.S. Secret Service honored him at the James J. Rowley Training Center with a permanent bronze plaque next to a street they named Clint Hill Way.
Hill passed away at his home in Belvedere, Calif., on Friday, February 21. A private funeral service will be held in Washington, D.C., at a future date.