Hilary Araujo 1945-2011

I can’t believe we lost another great colleague. Hilary Araujo passed away on April 14, 2011 after a short illness.

Hilary was Vice President at The Tiffen Company . He was a wonderful teacher. Whenever I was out of town, Hilary would often take over my class at Columbia’s University’s Graduate Film Program. The students adored him. Hilary Araujo’s first love was photography. He was the photographer for his High School newspaper, and he ran a small business providing rush overnight processing and enlargements for a local photo store. He enrolled in Queens College, served with distinction in the Air Force for four years (1965-1969) in Vietnam, rising to Staff Sergeant. After that, he worked at Berkey Marketing Co., a major marketing company near LaGuardia Airport that distributed ARRI, Linhof, Ascor, and Omega. He managed Berkey’s in-house studio for three years, and became product manager and marketing manager for many brands, including Rollei, Bronica, Horseman, Sea & Sea underwater cameras, and Cullmann tripods. That was followed by 10 years at ToCAD.

In 2004 he became executive marketing VP at The Tiffen Company. Hilary was the go-to expert at Tiffen on Dfx digital filter software, filters and Steadicam. He was a wonderful and eloquent educator, and patiently taught me how to master the complexities of Dfx software. Hilary was the gentleman you always saw at every trade show, surrounded by a crowd of people huddled around a computer, teaching the intricacies of previsualization software and the effects of different filters on a scene. Hilary was just named an Associate Member of the American Society of Cinematographers. I’m truly sorry he won’t get to enjoy the recognition he was recently awarded. Hilary was a true friend, a wonderful photographer and a great teacher. He will be deeply missed.

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1 Response:

  1. Orlando Luna says:

    I had the pleasure of working with Hilary on a few seminars. It was always a tremendous pleasure to interact with him. Very sad that we lost him.

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