Hilary Donald Thimmesh, OSB, (1928–2019) was a native Minnesotan who became a monk of Saint John’s Abbey in 1947. He was ordained priest in 1954, earned a doctorate in English from Cornell University in 1963, and taught courses in Chaucer and Sakespeare intermittently with administrative appointments until 2009 when he was named the first director of the Benedictine Institute. Fr. Hilary was prior of Saint John's Abbey from 1980–1982 after which he took over as president of Saint John's University in 1982 until 1991. In 2006, Fr. Hilary edited a sesquicentennial volume of Saint John's, titled Saint John's at 150: A Portrait of This Place Called Collegeville.