Previously he was a senior fellow at the East West Center (1982) and then Professor of Philosophy at Hawaii Loa College (1982 - present, now Campus of HPU). He has been director on the Hawaii Film Board, vice-president of the Arts Council of Hawaii, co- creator and principal Humanities scholar of the Hawaii international Film Festival, Visual Arts Editor for Honolulu Magazine (1981 - 86) and producer and writer for Hawaii Public Television.
Dr. Tillman was trained in the Air Force as a radar specialist and engineer, worked as consultant in the logic of decision-making for IBM (1961- 62), has a B.A. degree Columbia College and Ph. D, Columbia University. Dr. Tillman has published four books and numerous professional articles in the area of logic, philosophy of science, and information theory. He is editor-in-chief of Harper & Row (now Harper & Collins) "Contemporary Sources in Philosophy" and is completing a book Pictures, Language and Thought which is devoted to the cognitive effect of images on writing, reading and thinking.