James E. Hill, 72, who co-founded a local company that pioneered advances in credit-card issuing technology in the late 1960s and early 1970s, died Friday, Oct. 13, of renal failure at Coronado Hospital in San Diego, where he was visiting friends. Born in Chicago, Mr. Hill served in the U.S. Navy as a fireman first class during World War II. After the war, he worked for Chicago Switch, an electronics company, then moved to Long Island, N.Y., for four years to work for a defense contractor making trajectory and guidance systems for Polaris missiles, the Navy’s earliest underwater ballistic missiles, said his son Jeffery. In 1966, he returned to the Chicago area and started a contract engineering company, Dynetics Engineering Corp., with his partner, George Montalbano. One of Dynetics’ clients, Rand McNally Co., commissioned Mr. Hill in 1969 to develop a machine that counted credit cards automatically as inventory control, so workers would not have to count them by hand. When he demonstrated the machine to local banks, they wanted to buy them, too, and Mr. Hill decided to focus the business on making high-speed, credit card-issuing equipment. Based in Lincolnshire, the company manufactures machines that customize credit cards and print the mailers that accompany them in mailings to new cardholders. The company has three offices in the U.S. and works with distributors throughout the world, said Mr. Hill’s son, who is the director at Dynetics. Mr. Hill held numerous patents for the equipment he designed. A Lake Zurich resident, he retired in 1989 and enjoyed boating and traveling with his wife, Arlene, and friends. In addition to his son and wife, Mr. Hill is survived by three other sons, Gregory S., Mark E. and Kurt A.; a daughter, Gail D. Richter; a stepdaughter, Laurie A. Montalto-Rivest; three stepsons, Angelo F., Phillip V. and Frank A. Saccameno; a brother, Bert; six grandchildren; and eight stepgrandchildren. Services have been held.
