Robert W. Hall, 87, of Concord Township,
a real estate appraiser for 54 years, a self-taught landscape and marine
artist, and a World War II veteran, died Wednesday, Nov. 2, at home.
Mr. Hall was born in
Philadelphia in 1924, a descendant of John Key, the first male child born in William
Penn’s Colony. Mr. Hall graduated from Lower Merion High School in 1942 and
earned a bachelor’s degree from Temple University in 1949 on the GI Bill. He
served three years in the Army during World War II, including 18 months in
Europe with the Army of the Liberation.
Mr. Hall was very well known in
the field of industrial and commercial real estate appraisal and counseling. He
was a past president of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of
Real Estate Appraisers, a past president of the Delaware County Board of
Realtors, a Member of the Society of Real Estate Counselors, a Member of the
Appraisal Institute, a Member of the Governing Council of the Appraisal
Institute, and a member of the Faculty of the Appraisal Institute, for which he
taught many courses at universities and colleges across the country. His
book Real Estate Investment Analysis—How to Spot the TOP PERFORMERS for HIGH
RETURN Real Estate Investing was published in 1982. He is listed in the
1976 edition of Who’s Who in Real Estate and Finance, and in the 1980 edition
of Who’s Who in the World. His interest in the history of southeastern
Pennsylvania led to the research and publication of two articles in the July
1976 (Bicentennial) issue of The Appraisal Journal, entitled “Philadelphia’s
First Appraisal—America’s First?” and “Penn’s ‘Greene Countrie Towne.’”
A 49-year resident of Concord
Township, Mr. Hall was a charter member of the Concord Township Historical
Society, and was instrumental in the re-publication by the Historical Society
of Ashmead’s History of Delaware County.
Mr. Hall was a Charter Member
of Concord Liberty Presbyterian Church, and first became a Presiding Elder of
the Presbyterian Church in 1952.
Mr. Hall’s family describes him
as someone who never stopped seeking to grow and to learn. During the course of
his life, he pursued many, and varied, hobbies. For one, he was an avid
gardener and a nurseryman. For more than 40 years, Bob and his family operated
Smallbrook Farm Evergreen Nursery, a cut-your-own Christmas tree business,
especially enjoyed by the grandchildren, who every December felt as though
Grandma and Grandpa’s house was Santa’s workshop at the North Pole.
When his children were growing up, the hobbies Bob shared with them included
traveling, sailing on the Chesapeake Bay, horseback riding, hunting, and
fishing, particularly surf fishing on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in
recent years. Twenty years ago, along with his wife, Claire, Bob took up
cross country skiing and bicycle trail riding. These hobbies were only
recently replaced by the slightly less active ones of cooking, a passion of
Bob’s of the last several years, when he made many meals for himself and
Claire, as well as for family celebrations, and watercolor painting, which he began
in his early 70s, inspired by extensive travel in the United States, Canada,
and Europe, and as an outgrowth of an old hobby of pencil sketching, and which
became something of a second career.
Mr. Hall is survived by his
wife of 65 years, Kathleen Clarice Hamilton Hall, his sons, Robert Hall, of
Hockessin, and James Hall of Glen Mills, his daughter Kathleen Hall-Ditchfield
of West Grove, and five grandchildren.
A private graveside service was
held on Nov. 5 at Faggs Manor Presbyterian Church Cemetery in
Cochranville. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, Nov. 12, at 2
p.m. at Concord Liberty Presbyterian Church, with a time of visiting with the
family beginning at 1 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, friends are
invited to send conributions to Concord Liberty Presbyterian Church, at 256
Bethel Road, Glen Mills, PA 19342, or to The Children’s Hospital of
Philadelphia Foundation, Lockbox #1352, P.O. Box 8500, Philadelphia, PA
19178-1352.
Online condolences may be made
by visiting www.griecocares.com
Arrangements by the Foulk &
Grieco Funeral Home, West Grove.
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