Your Network of Praise
PO Box 2426
317 1st St
Havre MT 59501
1.800.442.9222
406.265.5845
406.265.8860 (fax)
ynop@ynop.org
Gary Hillson, Announcer
Gary was born February 5th, 1956 in Austin, Minnesota. The home of Hormel foods, Hormel Chili, Dinty Moore beef stew and of course everybody's favorite, Spam!! Austin is also the home of John Madden, who spends every Sunday night in a football booth with Al Michaels on NBC Sunday night football.
Gary was called to radio while still in high school and got his first radio job at 16 doing copy writing and production. It was then that Gary knew radio was something he felt very comfortable with and would be involved with for many years to come. There were other jobs along the way, but when he realized the Minnesota Twins were not going to call him to replace Harmon Killebrew when he retired, or that the Minnesota Northstars must have lost his number when Don Beaupre retired, it was radio that kept him happy all these years.
His early aspirations included becoming a major league baseball player and a professional hockey player, becoming a Lutheran minister, being a stock car driver, and working in public relations. He actually was very close to being a pro ball player when he got a call back to the Milwaukee Brewers tryout at old County stadium in Milwaukee. Although he never made it, he was put through several tests and was close to being in uniform by the time it was over and done.
Before all this took place, there was some great years in Gary's life that we should focus on, the year he became a Christian, 1972. At 16, the summer of '72 turned out to be "the best summer of my life!" Gary spent the summer of '72 on the shores of beautiful Lake Superior as a camp counselor at Camp Amnicon, bringing inner city kids from Minneapolis & St. Paul a little closer to Christ through 5 day camping trips canoeing through the North woods of Minnesota and Wisconsin. After spending the entire summer in tents and sleeping bags, everything else was easy! Camp Amnicon was a Lutheran camp sponsored by Central Lutheran Church in downtown Minneapolis, and has got to be one of the most beautiful churches in all the world! Friends were made from every walk of life possible! A young man from Trinidad, another from Minneapolis who had just got back from Vietnam, another from St.Paul getting ready to go to Vietnam. Basically, camp workers were thrown into adulthood a couple years earlier than normal because of the working relationships everyone had at camp. Camp Amnicon was a great way to spend a summer getting to know what being a Christian was about, and helping others to see Christian Faith at work in some pretty intense camping trips.
Radio has been a big part of Gary's life through the years, and Christian radio has become a big influence because it's work and ministry all rolled into one. Radio has taken him from Wisconsin to Minnesota to Montana and back again. Gary is the father of two teenage daughters who he is very proud of. Signe and Sonja, 16 and 14, are trying their hardest to keep him busy with all their school functions and activities. It has been a great ride, watching them grow up and turn into young ladies.
When all is said and done, Gary gives thanks to God for having blessed him with a good life. Gary's favorite Bible verse, Philippines 1:21 "To live is Christ, to die, is to gain"