John Evans Hill was born on February 21, 1945, in Chicago and grew up in Elmhurst, Illinois.

After high school, Hill attended Purdue University and graduated with a four-year degree in Military History.

John Hill founded the Conflict Games Company in the late 1960s and owned a hobby store, the Scale Model Shop, in Lafayette, Indiana, for several years.

Although this had traditionally only been used for Napoleonic-era wargames, Hill developed a modern-day miniatures game with a World War II setting that used platoon-sized groups and their individual officers.

By this time, Hill's reputation as a game designer was sufficiently high that when Simulations Publications, Inc. published his Battle for Stalingrad in 1980, his name appeared on the box cover.

[8] J P. Hunerwadel commented in 2001 that "John Hill's Squad Leader ... helped fuel the great board-war-game boom of the late seventies.

Game designer Dana Lombardy commented, "John Hill's Civil War miniatures rules remain innovative, challenging, and lots of fun, a claim supported by the game's loyal fan support.

Clubs still stage Johnny Reb sessions at conventions around the world, more than 20 years after the rules were introduced.

[11] After spending many years in Northern Virginia, where he also served as a military analyst for the U.S. Government, Hill retired to New Mexico.