Please remember in your prayers Andrew Hilger ’52, who died Sunday, Aug. 18, of Alzheimer's disease. Hilger, 83, of St. Cloud, Minn., was a central Minnesota broadcaster, businessman and community leader.
Andrew Hilger
After graduating from the College of St. Thomas in 1952, he served in the U.S. Air Force from 1953 to 1955. He worked at KCIM Radio in Carroll, Iowa, from 1955 to 1957, and with KYMS Radio in Mankato, Minn., in 1957 and 1958. He was most noted for his radio career and community influence in central Minnesota.
He was inducted into the Museum of Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2006. According to the museum, “In 1958, while hitch-hiking to Brainerd, Andy Hilger called WJON Radio in St. Cloud from a highway phone booth and landed a job as night-time DJ, ‘Tin Pan Andy.’ From this chance-encounter assignment, he applied individual initiative to work his way up, buying WJON in 1965, and adding FM stations WWJO, KMXK, and KKJM over the years.”
The museum also notes that Hilger “helped found the St. Cloud Area United Way and the Central Minnesota Community Foundation, and led numerous community fund drives and capital campaigns.”
Funeral services were held Friday, Aug. 23, at St. Mary's Cathedral, Upper Church, in St. Cloud.
Obituaries and guest books can be viewed at legacy.com and Miller-Carlin Funeral Home. A St. Cloud Times' story about Hilger can be viewed here.
