Boxer Spotlight! 3/11/24
Meet Ed “THE HULK” Hiller
Enjoy our new segment in the Weekly Grind so you can meet and learn more about our fighters! This week, meet Ed “The Hulk” Hiller.
- When were you diagnosed with Parkinson’s?
I was diagnosed with PD in January 2021, following physical therapy after my second full knee replacement in two years.
- When did you start coming to 110 Fitness?
I started coming to 110 Fitness in March 2021, 60 days after my diagnosis.
- What’s your favorite class or activity at 110?
I prefer Tuesdays as it provides the most activity diversity and I can push myself hard or not so hard depending on how I’m feeling that day.
- What do(did) you do for work?
Most of my career involved selling high technology (computers and related systems) to large corporations. Following graduation from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1967, I worked for IBM and then many other “bleeding edge” companies in sales and sales management positions, promoting ‘technologies of the future’.
For the last 10 years of my career, I owned a window cleaning franchise. I like to say I went “from high tech to no tech”. I sold the business and retired in 2015.
- What would you like us to know about you and your family?
My wife Linda and I have been married for 55 years. Linda was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in her early 20’s and in addition to successfully raising our family she has been a strong advocate for disability awareness in the Newton Public School system. For over 45 years her work at Understanding Our Differences (UOD), she has helped educate elementary school children about what it is like to live with a disability; including blindness, deafness, physical and cognitive disabilities and special medical problems such as epilepsy and diabetes. For her work in this area in 2009 Linda was recognized by the Boston Celtics as ‘A Hero Among Us’.
Our son David lives in NJ, works as a video journalist for WNBC-TV in NYC and is a (6X) Emmy Award winner. He and his wife Marcy have two girls, the older of whom is a freshman at Penn State.
Our daughter Alison and her husband Tim live in Crested Butte, CO where Alison is a well-recognized wedding and portrait photographer (alisonwhitephotography.com). They have one son, Oliver, a freshman at St. Lawrence University where he enjoys an athletic scholarship on the St. Lawrence University Nordic ski team.
- Any fun hobbies you’d like to share?
When I’m not at 110 Fitness or at a doctor’s office for me or Linda I like to maintain a few small gardens around my unit at Linden Ponds. I also dabble in family genealogy.
- How has 110 Fitness impacted your life outside of the gym?
110 Fitness has enabled me to have a life outside of the gym. Because of my life at the gym, I have the strength, energy and the positive outlook to live as close to a normal life as possible while living with Parkinson’s disease. It has also afforded me the opportunity to do things I would never have done including the Fenway Spartan race, surfing, rock climbing, and axe throwing to name a few.