Goodbye Brother Blue

Brother Blue, the legendary storyteller of Harvard Square, has passed away.

You would often see Brother Blue walking through Harvard Square in his trademark blue garb with his wife Ruth. In recent years he did more audiencing than performing, but that was appreciated too.

The official biography is that Hugh Morgan Hill was born in Cleveland, Ohio, served in the army in both Europe and Asia during World War II, and was honorably discharged as a first lieutenant. Then he then earned his bachelor's degree in social relations from Harvard University, a master's of fine arts in playwrighting from Yale School of Drama, and a doctorate in storytelling from Union Graduate School.

The unofficial biography is that Brother Blue never held a "standard job" and made his living telling stories. He was an unofficial professor at Harvard University and its oldest unofficial undergraduate too.

He passed away this Tuesday at age 88 after a short illness. While the illness has not been publicly identified, I'm guessing it was what I am now calling the Blue Flu. Wife Ruth reports that just before he died, he told her a love story.