Hal was one of the first people that I met at Hamilton. I was fresh out of college and interviewing for a programmer trainee position at MSD. A couple of “old guys” – Hal and Gil Anderson (in their 40’s at the time), took me out to lunch as part of the interview. I’ll never forget the date – August 8, 1974, because I remember listening to the two of them speculate on what President Nixon was going to announce in his press conference that evening (it was in fact that evening that he announced his resignation).
As of this writing, Hal's obit has yet to be published, but his son Scott wrote to me to say that the service will be held in Walden NY in the early Spring. In the meantime, some of you have sent in your memories:
"Hal was always considerate and a perfect gentleman.. He was trained and interested in the theater.. He would organize some of the managers to perform in a comical skit at our department parties. He would produce the material and schedule some practice sessions for us. It was a lot of fun" ~ Norm Lapointe
"Hal was an all round good person. Just as an aside, while my step-daughter was living in Pittsburgh, Nancy and I got together with Hal for lunch in a nearby community. That must have been 10 years ago or more. I only got to know Hal from the monthly alumni get togethers, before we moved south." ~ Hank McWay
"So sad to hear of Hal's passing. I always admired his ability to organize resources and develop offerings for user departments that wanted to own their own computers. He was a trail blazer. Hal developed Info Center standards, published a newsletter, and created HSD user groups. Rest in peace my friend!" ~ Dwight Penfield
Remember those guys in that skit band during the picnics, “Marvin and Mavis” ?? .....
I recall in Hal’s East Granby home…in the finished basement
was an actual cell for prisoners. He modified
it so it was part of his bar… he left the top metal bars in place and built the
bar with stools below it." ~ Jo-Ann Smith
I’ll state the obvious here: if it weren’t for Hal (as well as Gil), you wouldn’t be reading this, there never would have been a monthly alumni breakfast or newsletter, and many of us would have lost touch with each other long ago.
Hal and Gil had what could be a described as a friendly rivalry at times, but they shared the sense of commitment and spirit of camaraderie that strengthened the ties in our department. With that spirit, they launched the first “News from the Hole” in December of 1992 – thirty years ago, almost to the day. Not many of the original issues have survived, but a couple of years ago, Hal mailed me the few that he had kept. Here is Volume I, Issue #2, dated January 1993 (sorry for the blurry-ness; it's the best the scanner would do).:
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Thank you, Hal, for making this all possible!
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| Taken when we stopped to visit him in PA in 2007 on
our tour of the northeast. - Larry Quillen |
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| At the annual MSD alumni luncheon, 2014 |
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| Gil and Hal: annual MSD alumni luncheon, 2012 |
