Stuart Hilwig, professor of history at Adams State University in Alamosa, Colorado, died on October 28, 2012, in an automobile accident in New Mexico. Two of his children—Jack, 6, and Charlotte, 4—are in serious condition.

Raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Hilwig received his BA from Vanderbilt University on a full scholarship and his MA and PhD from The Ohio State University, where he wrote his doctoral thesis on the 1968 student protests in Italy. After joining the faculty of ASU in 2000, Hilwig taught European history, Latin American history, and historiography, received the university's Exemplary Faculty Award for 2005–2006, served as president of the faculty senate from 2005 to 2007, and was faculty representative, Colorado Commission on Higher Education, in 2005–2006.

Hilwig was a specialist in modern Italian history, a subject he embraced from a young age because of his family roots and his rich experience working for Sicilian immigrants in a pizzeria during his high school years. A frequent traveler to Italy, most recently with his family in 2011, Hilwig relished his many friends, their intense conversations, and the country's beauty and contrasts. A fluent Italian speaker, he regarded this country as his second home....