Think and Grow Rich!

Left: Ross Cornwell, the book’s compiler and editor, on a visit to Napoleon
Hill’s gravesite. The monument, designed by architect John Erwin Ramsay,
is just beyond Hill’s grave in Frederick Memorial Gardens near Gaffney,
South Carolina. Right, from top to bottom The maple trees, in January, that stand guard over Hill’s resting place the Hill memorial marker above the graves of both Napoleon and Annie Lou Hill, the love of his life Annie's individual marker.

APPENDIX A
A Soaring Spirit
According to his official biographer, Napoleon Hill was born on
October 26, 1883, in a two-room log cabin in the mountains of Wise
County in southwest Virginia, the son of James Monroe and Sara Sylvania
Blair Hill. He died at age 87 on November 8, 1970, at his retirement home on Paris Mountain near Greenville, South Carolina, where he spent the last years of his life. He was in relatively good health up until his sudden death and had recently undergone a successful cataract operation—the better to allow him to continue his lifelong habit of reading, research, and reflection on the principles of success. His death came the day before that of Charles DeGaulle of France, a towering world figure whom Hill would no doubt have relished interviewing about his life, philosophy, and particular path to success.
Dr. Hill was survived by his wife, Annie Lou N. Hill, a native South
Carolinian; three sons, James H. Hill and Blair H. Hill of Lumberport, West
Virginia, and David H. Hill of Clarksburg, West Virginia two brothers,
Vivian O. Hill of Washington and Dr. Paul Hill of Harrisburg, Virginia and one sister, Mrs. Willie Wise of Wise, Virginia. The November 12, edition of The Greenville (SC) News published the following editorial after his death:
Napoleon Hill chose to settle down in Greenville about 18
[sic, should be “13”] years ago after an active life in which he
came to know many of America’s most famous people. He himself
became famous for the books he published after moving here.
His works on the power of thought achieved best-seller
status and were published after the author had attained an age at

which most people were incomplete retirement.
Mr. Hill acquired avast amount of information and wisdom
which he was able to reduce to easily-grasped form in the books
he wrote. He had the refreshing ability to keep growing and to
remain outgoing as the years rolled by.
He was one of the best exponents of the power of positive
thinking, an attribute the world needs in an age when negative
thought appears to be gaining popularity. Greenville and the
nation lost a valuable citizen when Napoleon Hill died recently at
age 87.
Napoleon and Annie Lou Hill today lie buried side by side in
Frederick Memorial Gardens, located on the Cherokee Foothills Scenic
Highway just off Interstate 85 and about one and a half miles from the city limits of Gaffney, South Carolina. If you ever pass that way, and if
Napoleon Hill has meant something to you, a trip to Memorial Gardens will be a memorable experience.
The gravesites of Napoleon and his beloved Annie Lou—who died
December 21, 1984, at the age of lie in section Blot, under the shade of a stately Florida maple. A four-foot-by-16-inch bronze marker,
embellished with etched dogwood flowers, rests above their individual markers. The main marker reads simply, Napoleon Hill – Author The exposed roots of the old maple have gradually fingered their way over the ground’s surface and, seemingly, almost down into Hill’s very grave—a living metaphor for how his life’s work has provided and continues to provide sustenance, inspiration, and energy to the lives of so many people all these years.
A second aspect of the landscape in Frederick Memorial Gardens provides, equally fortuitously, another metaphoric statement about what
Napoleon Hill’s life and work have meant to the world. Across the curving cemetery road from Hill’s grave rests a monument designed by John Erwin
Ramsay, an architect from Salisbury, North Carolina. It is a Christian monument, full of symbolism about the ultimate futility of human striving
—a trylon or triangular stele” (a tall triangular shaft tapering to a point),
representing the Holy Trinity water at the base representing the water of life and soon. There is also a soaring concrete arch fronting the trylon,
like the parabolic trajectory of a steep Roman candle shot, frozen in time—

a small-scale St. Louis Gateway Arch. It symbolizes birth and death, and mankind’s need for relationship with God, but the dramatic upward
“soaring” of this parabola—and the inscription relating to its skyward thrust
—in some unexpected way call to mind The Think and Grow Rich
Philosophy of Napoleon Hill and his belief in the power of individuals to shape their own destiny. In part, the inscription reads:
“From the earth, man through his own efforts soars upward in search of eternal life….”

Download 3.05 Mb.

Share with your friends: