Douglas H. Hill graduated Bachelor of Arts, from Auckland University in 1969, majoring in French and German with Music as a supporting subject. He attended Auckland Teachers' College in the same year and began a teaching career which has spanned more than fifty years.

He taught French and Music at Upper Hutt College, English at the Engelbert Kaempfer Gymnasium in Germany for two years and on his return to New Zealand in 1975 became Head of the Music Department at Waimea College where he remained for twenty six years. In 2000 he and his wife Mary set up a private school – Richmond Hills English Language School- mainly teaching English as a Second Language to international students but also French, German and Music.

Doug has always cultivated an involvement with the French language, not only through teaching and travel to France and New Caledonia but also as a foundational member of the  Nelson branch of the Alliance Francaise and as an interpreter for the Justice and Health departments in Nelson.

Doug was born in Auckland and has membership of the Te Runanga a Iwi o Ngapuhi through his bloodline to Richard Heke, born 1865, who is his great-grandfather. He also has foundational links to Auckland through his pakeha roots as his great grandparents were passengers on the first emigrant ships to Auckland in 1842 – The Jane Gifford and The Duchess of Argyll. They were from Scotland and subsequent emigrants in his family were from Wales and England with links to Dunedin, the West Coast and Canterbury