Hugh Gillilan

Hugh Gillilan grew up in Ohio, graduated from the University of Ohio in English, married Jan, and then began a dual graduate program in Evanston, Illinois, at both a Methodist seminary and at Northwestern University, earning both a Bachelor of Divinity and a Master in Pastoral Psychology and Counseling. During this period he held the usual jobs: cabby, janitor, and driver's training instructor; but also some unusual jobs: they lived in a third-floor apartment of a Coca Cola vice president's residence in exchange for cleaning and yard care; he served as a youth minister in Kenosha, Wisconsin; he also served as a minister of a small Methodist church in Spring Grove, Illinois, where the superintendent was a fundamentalist and whose favorite song was "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam," which was the beginning of Hugh's humanism; and they lived in a college dormitory as house parents.

Growing up as a Methodist, Hugh wanted to become a liberal minister, but some psychotherapy sessions helped him face up to his doubts about his religious beliefs. With his new credentials, he served as an associate minister in Parma, Ohio, for two years, but on Ash Wednesday, 1961, he mailed his credentials to the bishop, thus renouncing his ordination, emptied his office, and was instantly jobless.

As a father with a wife and two children to support, he started selling Knapp work shoes from gas station to gas station, earning $20.00 on a good day, and also substitute taught a third grade class. But within a few weeks, the First Unitarian Church in Salt Lake City invited him to "candidate" for a week, and at age 27, he was voted by the congregation as minister. During his ministry, he served as president of the ACLU and was one of the founders of Friendship Manor.

He served as minister for eight years, and in 1969 left the ministry, went to Westminster as a college counselor and instructor of 13 different classes, primarily in psychology, and also completed his Doctor of Educational Psychology degree at the University of Utah. In 1971, he joined the Granite Community Mental Health Center and worked at juvenile court and in the crisis intervention unit. Finally, in 1975, Hugh went into private practice until he retired in 1996, during which time he was also an adjunct professor of psychology at the U and president of the Utah Psychological Association.

Nowadays he travels, does some home improvement, does some volunteer work for the American Cancer Society and the Nature Conservancy, and serves on a citizens foster care review panel. Hugh currently serves as vice-president for the Humanists of Utah.

--Earl Wunderli