Hill was born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. He was one of four children and grew up in a one-room apartment in the back of a tire repair shop. At age four Rick was paralyzed by polio. In 1964, he graduated from Aitkin High School in Aitkin, Minnesota. In 1968, he graduated from Saint Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Hill received his Juris Doctor degree in 2005 from the Concord Law School in Los Angeles, California.
In May 1976, Hill filed for divorce from his first wife, Mary Hill (née Spaulding), after having an affair with another woman. In 1980, after the couple failed to reconcile, Spaulding filed for divorce and Hill obtained custody of the three children. He married his second wife, Betti, in 1983.
In 1996, Hill ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in Montana's At-large congressional district. He won the Republican primary with a plurality of 44% of the vote. In the general election, he defeated Democrat Bill Yellowtail, who had been a Regional Administrator for the United States Environmental Protection Agency, 52%-43%. In November 1998, Hill won re-election to a second term, defeating Democratic nominee Dusty Deschamps 53%-44%.
Between 1997 and 2000, Hill sponsored 32 bills, of which 22 did not made it out of committee and four were passed into law by Congress. He voted with the Republican party 91% of the time.
In 2000, Hill decided not to run for re-election to a third term, citing vision problems, which were subsequently corrected. The election was won by Republican nominee Denny Rehberg, who defeated Nancy Keenan, a three-term State School Superintendent.
In November 2010, he announced he would run for Governor of Montana in 2012. He chose State Senator Jon Sonju as his running mate. On November 6, 2012, he lost to his Democratic opponent, Steve Bullock, in the general election.
He served as Republican precinct committeeman and state committeeman from Lewis and Clark County, Montana; member, served on the board of Directors, Montana Science and Technology Alliance; and chaired the Montana State Worker’s Compensation Board from 1993 to 1996.
