Eleanor W. Hiller; Corrections Activist

Eleanor W. Hiller, who dedicated more than 20 years to probation and corrections issues, which included leading the state board that handled women’s parole terms, has died at her Burbank home. She was 86.

During her 10 years as chairwoman of the California Women’s Board of Terms and Parole, Mrs. Hiller called for the hiring of more parole and probation officers, in addition to assistance from community groups, to help imprisoned women adjust to society after their release.

“I believe in caring about people,” Mrs. Hiller said in a 1971 Times interview. “We each have a stake in our community, and we must care what happens to those who are in it. A person who gets into trouble goes out of the community to prison and comes back to it from prison.”

She died Sunday of complications of chronic bronchitis, said her daughter, Catherine Sullivan of Lancaster.

Born in Akron, Ohio, Mrs. Hiller earned a bachelor’s degree from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. In 1930, she married Robert E. Hiller, who worked on Boulder Dam, now called Hoover Dam, before the couple settled in Burbank in 1938.

Mrs. Hiller’s work involving penal issues began when she served on the Burbank Police Commission from 1953 to 1961. During the mid-1950s, she was on Gov. Goodwin J. Knight’s Advisory Committee for Children and Youth in addition to Atty. Gen. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown’s Advisory Committee on Crime Prevention.

She later served as a delegate and local chairwoman of the White House Conference on Children and Youth and as a member of the Neighborhood Youth Assn., Burbank Family Service and the Big Sister League.

A member of the Los Angeles County grand jury in 1962, Mrs. Hiller served on the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Citizens Advisory Committee and was appointed to the Los Angeles County Probation Committee the following year. Appointed by Gov. Ronald Reagan, she served as chairwoman of the California Women’s Board of Terms and Parole from 1967 to 1977.

Mrs. Hiller was a longtime PTA activist and served as president of both the Los Angeles County Federation of Community Coordinating Councils and the California Community Councils in the early and mid-1950s. Named Burbank’s Woman of the Year in 1954, she was also a charter member of La Providencia Guild of Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles.

In addition to her daughter, Catherine, Mrs. Hiller is survived by her husband of 62 years; daughters Lesley Menninger of Iowa City, Iowa, and Elizabeth Brinkworth of Golden, Colo.; brother John R. Woodruff of Claremont, and seven grandchildren.

Services will be private and her ashes will be scattered at sea. The Telophase Cremation Society in Garden Grove is handling the arrangements. Donations can be made in Mrs. Hiller’s name to the Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles, 4650 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles 90054-0700.