John Raymond Hall of Fall River, Mass., died Aug. 4. He had been in declining health for some time and had resided since 2001 at the Adams House Nursing Home.

John Raymond Hall was born in Fall River on June 6, 1912. In 1934, he graduated from Brown University in Providence, R.I., with a Bachelor of Philosophy degree. After eight years of work, primarily as a high school teacher, Mr. Hall responded to the bombing at Pearl Harbor by entering the U.S. Navy in April 1942 (after completion of his teaching obligations for the school year).

Mr. Hall served with distinction through World War II and the Korean War, finally resigning from the Navy in 1954. His service was primarily with the Passenger and Transport Branch, where his skill at logistical analysis allowed him to help move people and goods wherever the war effort required them to be. Based in Washington, D.C., he developed what would prove to be a lifelong interest in federal government service. He also met Elizabeth Florence Lord, a fellow naval officer. They were married on May 29, 1946.

Also in 1946, Mr. Hall began graduate studies at American University in Washington, D.C. He received a master's degree in economics in 1953. His studies included courses on the history of economic thought and American colonial history, two subjects that would inspire a lifetime's work on family and hometown history. The effort began with the expansion of his master's thesis on Swansea's three-rank system, a distinctive element in the organization of the economics of land in Colonial southeastern Massachusetts.

In 1954, Mr. Hall joined the Operations Analysis group of the U.S. Air Force in Wiesbaden, Germany. In this position, he would prepare analyses and recommend actions for the Air Force to take in furtherance of its ability to achieve its military objectives. Writing after Mr. Hall returned to the United States in 1957, his former supervisor stated, "I have found numerous occasions to point out to someone that an action now directed is essentially the one proposed by Hall two years ago."

In June 1957, he joined the Air Force Air Material command at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City, Okla. Mr. Hall was back to the field of logistics, now in support of the Strategic Air Command. He became active in the local chapter of the Reserve Officers Association, rising to the office of chapter president, and also organized discussion of issues of global strategy through the local Unitarian Church. In November 1960, he was transferred to a similar position with the 26th Air Division in Syracuse, N.Y.

In February 1962, Mr. Hall arranged to move back to Washington, D.C., first at the Institute for Defense Analysis, one of the "think tanks" that had sprung up to support innovative strategic thinking in the Kennedy Administration. After a three-month bridge position with the Center for Naval Analyses while his clearance was processed, Mr. Hall joined the new Arms Control & Disarmament Agency in June 1963.

In April 1966, Mr. Hall made one final career change, and it would prove to be a home where he could make a real difference for the remainder of his working life. He joined the Manpower Resources Program of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. With Medicare set to begin a few months later, this was a time of enormous change in the national approach to health-care delivery, and Mr. Hall would be responsible for stimulating and facilitating research studies on innovative ways of meeting the skyrocketing demand for trained medical personnel.

In January 1967, Mr. Hall transferred to the Bureau of Health Manpower within HEW. In June 1968, he made a final transfer to the National Center for Health Services Research and Development, where he served until his retirement in 1976.

Mr. Hall was one of the co-founders of the Health Applications Section of the Operations Research Society of America in June 1967. He would serve as secretary, vice chairman, chairman and newsletter editor for the section over the next decade. In 1979, he would write a history of the section for its newsletter — a combination of history, writing and knowledge of the organization and the field that only he could have provided. He also served as chairman of the Technical Sections Committee, where he sought to provide some order to what was then a proliferation of overlapping groups.

In July 1994, Mr. Hall moved to the Bay View Retirement Home in Fall River, where he completed writing and publication of four books on family and regional history. He also established a large collection of historical references and materials in his name at the Swansea (Mass.) Public Library.

Mr. Hall is survived by his son, John Raymond Hall Jr. (former member of TIMS Council and INFORMS Board); his daughter, Judith Elizabeth Hall; and his two younger brothers, Walter R. Hall and Lawrence W. Hall. In lieu of flowers, donations are encouraged to the non-profit facilities that Mr. Hall called home for the past decade, Bay View Retirement Home and Adams House, 1168 Highland Avenue, Fall River, MA 02720.





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