A native of Boston, Chuck Hilly received his LL.B. in 1941 from Northeastern University Law School. After being admitted to the bar, he practiced with his father, Charles F. Hilly, Sr., until 1942 when he entered flight training with the U.S. Navy. Later he helped organize the Boston branch of the Office of Naval Research by establishing basic contract policies and setting up research contracts with universities and other research organizations. He brought that expertise with him, first to Raytheon, where he was special assistant to the Administrative Vice President, and then to SRI in 1950.
For many years, Chuck was responsible for the Institute's contractual relationships with its many clients, both domestic and international. In the 1950s, as Contract Administrator, he handled negotiation and administrative details of government and commercial contracts and general SRI administration.
Chuck was able to work out feasible solutions to contracting problems with diverse organizations such as the Department of State, the Department of Defense, and the Atomic Energy Commission as well as with international organizations such as the Italian government, the United Nations, and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. At that time, very few of these groups had been involved to any extent with private contractors such as SRI.
Three specific contributions were his success in convincing contracting groups to award fixed fees on contracts with nonprofit contractors, his success in gaining approval by the U.S. Treasury to allow tax exemption for scientific research organizations such as SRI, and his advancement of the interests of SRI when serving as a member of contract research committees concerned with overhead recovery rates. His responsibilities grew in scope and complexity and, in 1967, he was appointed Assistance Vice President, Finance, for Contract Relations, and in the 1970s, he became Vice President of Contracts and Financial Services.
Chuck was crucially important to SRI's growth for his work in creating the structure, policies, and procedures that made up SRI's contracting procedures. Great credit is due to Chuck Hilly for developing a sound and successful contracting system for SRI.