To spend time with Rose Wilson-Hill is to experience a sense of more gracious times, when ladies were ladies -- genteel, well spoken, self-assured and charming -- and there was an unhurried elegance to life.

And yet, beneath the soft exterior beats the heart of a woman whose quiet determination has led her to conquer metaphorical mountains, and who has dedicated most of her working life to enhancing educational opportunities for minority students.

In fact, of the many awards Mrs. Wilson-Hill has won in her lifetime, it is the one presented by Ohio State University for Distinguished Affirmative Action in 1996 that makes her the proudest.

"It was in recognition of my work in recruiting minority students,'' she smiles. "It is what my soul has been about over the years.'' As with myriad things in her life, Mrs. Wilson-Hill's dedication to this cause was shaped by an early experience at Adelphi Academy in the US.

"In the dorm there were six black students, the boys in one room and the girls in another. After I graduated I understood these were designated the black students' rooms. You don't know what effect these kinds of things have on you at the time, but I knew that at some point in my life I wanted to be in a helping profession where I could make an impact, be it ever so small -- where people had equal opportunity.'' Born one of four children to Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph W.R. Wilson, now of Southampton, Rose exhibited a keen interest in education from an early age, and proved an apt student at all of the schools she attended here: Sandringham (the then-Seventh Day Adventist School), Northlands and Berkeley Institute, where the love of her favourite subject, English, was carefully nurtured.

At age 13, she went to school in Jamaica until homesickness and a combination of administrative and structural problems at the school drove her back two years later, from whence she attended Adelphi Academy in Holly, Michigan.

Again, young Rose shone academically, graduating before her seventeenth birthday.

Back in Bermuda, a chance remark by her father led to a four and a half year stint in the advertising department of The Royal Gazette, where her experience as display editor for the student newspaper at Adelphi laid the groundwork for a successful career in charge of the then-Copy Desk.

"From that experience I learned about the importance of detail,'' Mrs.

Wilson-Hill recalls.

Indeed, it was the first of several early life experiences which would pay dividends later.

Latin, for example, a much-detested subject at school, has stood her in good stead as a member of the Colombus Symphony Chorus, which often performs works in that language. Similarly, the "crushing deadlines'' of her Royal Gazette days enable her to cope with the pressures of her present job as acting Special Assistant to the Vice Provost at Ohio State University.

As good as her Royal Gazette job was, young Rose Wilson's thirst to become an English teacher was unquenchable, so she enrolled in Oakville College, Alabama to major in her favourite subject. Once there, however, she changed her mind, switching to secretarial administration studies instead -- a move that would eventually earn her many awards for her skills, including a coveted Olivetti typewriter, and prove invaluable in taking her steadily up the career ladder.

Like most students short of funds, Mrs. Wilson-Hill combined studies with part-time work to help finance her tuition, and one of these -- in the president's office of Oakville College -- ultimately led to a full-time position as his executive secretary.

When the president moved on to become Associate Dean of Ohio State University's Graduate School in 1971, it was again with the proficient Mrs.

Wilson-Hill at his side.

The move was to be the beginning of what Mrs. Wilson-Hill describes as a challenging and rewarding career devoted to increasing minority enrollment in graduate school.

"In the 1970s Ohio State was quite maverick,'' she relates. "The associate Dean wrote a proposal to fund 100 minority Masters fellowships, and it is still in operation today. The university made a conscious effort to recruit minorities because schools around the country weren't being that liberal in their thinking at the time.'' Certainly the Associate Dean could not have found a more zealous employee than Mrs. Wilson-Hill, who fondly recalls years of taking last-minute student applications papers to the admissions office herself to ensure they made the deadline.

Never one to rest on her academic laurels, however, the transplanted Bermudian resolved to resume pursuit of a degree. Enrolling in the advanced education programme at Capital University in Colombus, Ohio, the straight A student ultimately graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in education.

Always a high achiever, Mrs. Wilson-Hill would also complete graduate courses in clinical agency counselling at the University of Dayton, Ohio with her usual 4.00 grade point average.

In 1978, she was appointed Director of Special Programmes in Ohio State's Office of Minority Affairs -- a demanding post which she held until 1994.

Much to her delight, her duties included criss-crossing America in a massive effort to recruit minority graduate and professional students to Ohio State; administering the orientation programme for new minority enrolees; writing major speeches and reports, and overseeing the operation of multiple units within the Office of Minority Affairs.

Appointed acting Special Assistant to the Vice Provost in the Office of Minority Affairs in 1998, Mrs. Wilson-Hill's ever-increasing responsibities include managing the Business Operations Team and a $4.6 million budget.

"I have a wonderful staff of 21 and they make me proud all the time,'' she says.

As pleased as she is of the progress made in relation to the minority students' graduate and professional programmes, Mrs. Wilson-Hill is also anxious about the future, given that there seems to be a creeping belief in the abolition of affirmative action across the US.

"We are walking on eggshells right now,'' she explains. "After the deaths of Martin Luther King and President Kennedy there was a lot of liberal thinking, but now things are at a standstill, and our jobs are even more challenging.'' Typically, she remains optimistic.

"We obviously need more diversity training, and more sensitivity sessions for people in administration at all levels,'' she notes.

So dedicated is Mrs. Wilson-Hill to furthering minority education that she is undecided about her own future come May 29, 2000 when she has the option of retiring after 30 years at Ohio State.

"When I look at all that has to be done in terms of ministering not only to the students who are there but also their brothers and sisters who will follow, it becomes increasingly difficult to say I am going to stop,'' she admits.

Wilson-Hill is an activist and a singer "I totally enjoy my work and sense that I am doing my little bit in my little corner.'' Aside from her aspirations as a career woman, Mrs. Wilson-Hill enjoyed a long, happy marriage until the sudden death of her adored husband four years ago.

"He spent his life giving, and made our world a better place,'' she says quietly, adding of his death, "You don't get over it, you just manage it better.'' Together, the couple raised four "very beautiful'' children, all of whom enjoy successful careers, and she is also the proud grandmother of two.

But it is perhaps as a singer that this soft-spoken former Somerset resident is best known in Bermuda, for she was recently the featured soloist in a City Hall concert sponsored by the Hamilton Lions Club.

Her journey to membership in the Colombus Symphony Chorus (CSC) began on her father's lap at age four when the duo sang hymns together. Instinctively an alto, she later sang with the touring Aeolians of Oakwood College.

In Colombus, Mrs. Wilson-Hill successfully auditioned for the CSC at a time when there were just ten blacks in the 180-strong chorus. Commended at the time for her "beautiful voice'', she is today one of five blacks in approximately 140 voices who sing accompanied by the 100-piece Colombus Symphony Orchestra before audiences of approximately 3500 in the Ohio Theatre Hall.

"I feel so privileged to be part of the Symphony Chorus because it allows me to do something that I really enjoy, as well as performing some of the major works of all time,'' she enthuses.

Mrs. Wilson-Hill also accepts singing engagements in churches, at weddings and funerals, and serves on the board of directors of the American Heart Association's Franklin County, Ohio/West Virginia affiliate.

For all the years she has spent abroad, Rose Wilson-Hill remains at heart a Bermudian whose roots and the intrinsic values instilled in her by her parents are as much treasured as her annual visits home. She is also inordinately proud of Bermuda's role in the world.

"When I think of the global impact of our little Isle of Bermuda, with all its exempt company connections, its tourist trade, and other wealth for its size, I also reflect on the contributions of so many Bermudians who have left the Island in years gone by, those who have returned, and those now outside the Island all over the world.

"It is certainly a witness to the strong sense of our earliest Bermudian values, and something special to celebrate as an ever-sustaining and wonderful `Bermuda global presence','' she marvels.

As might be expected of someone who has experienced her share of joys and sorrows, the widely-travelled widow attributes her serenity to an inner faith.

"There is a source far greater than ours that holds everything that we do, and we have to rely on that source. For me it is God, and He is an ever-present force in my life. Without my strong beliefs, I would never have been able to cope as well as I do with my husband's passing. It behooves us all to remember people well, and as you would want to be remembered.''