Super

Una Kathleen Hillier belongs to a rather select group in the Church. She is one of the few sisters ever to be set apart as a Sunday School superintendent. Normally, that has been a priesthood calling.

When the Hillier family arrived in Victoria, British Columbia, in 1935, there was no functioning local Church unit. A Sunday School had been organized in 1917 but had disbanded in 1926. In 1937, another attempt was made, but within five months, the Sunday School superintendent moved. As is often the case when membership is sparse, there was a dearth of priesthood leadership. And so the mission president set apart Una Hillier, a young mother at the time, as second assistant superintendent “until such time as there are resident priesthood holders to fill these callings.”

For the next seven and a half years, the full-time missionaries came and went, serving as superintendents, but Sister Hillier provided continuity and solid leadership in her calling as second assistant. She served under eight superintendents, then for two and a half years she served as superintendent. When a priesthood holder was present to administer the sacrament, the Sunday meetings became sacrament meetings. Steadily, the growth in the area saw greater priesthood support, and Sister Hillier was released from her calling.

Now ninety-seven years old, Una has long been a force for good in the Victoria British Columbia Canada Stake, where, besides serving as Sunday School superintendent, she was at various times a Relief Society president, a Primary teacher, a Gospel Doctrine teacher, a teacher trainer, a Junior Sunday School coordinator, a visiting teacher, and a chorister.

Visitors to the elderly Sister Hillier today are often treated to lessons on local Church history. Una is a living chronicle of the early days of the Church in Victoria, and she’s a lesson in faith and endurance to all who visit her.—Robert J. McCue, Victoria, British Columbia

Una Kathleen Hillier. (Photography by Don L. Searle.)