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John's brother, Bill, sent me these three pdf files that are from an Oregonian article at the time of John's death.
/000/0/9/2/20290/userfiles/file/John_Henry_Hall_1_of_3_on_19_March_72(1).pdf
/000/0/9/2/20290/userfiles/file/John_Henry_Hall_2_of_3_on_19_March_72(1).pdf
/000/0/9/2/20290/userfiles/file/John_Henry_Hall_3_of_3_on_19_March_72.pdf
This was submitted by John's brother, Bill.
While attending Reed College, John formed many lasting friendships most notably with Arlene Blum. Arlene would be a significant player throughout his life.
After an under graduate degree at Reed College, John spent the summer of 1965 at the Outward Bound Survival Program on Hurricane Island, Maine.
John was accepted into the Harvard Medical School, and left for Boston in the fall of 1965. He became disappointed with the program’s rote memorization and their priority to protect the doctor over the patient. He started thinking about another school and another profession. The high point of his time in Boston was the time he spent with his roommate, Michael Crichton. Michael would later base a character in his best seller, The Andromeda Strain, on John. On John’s death we received a call and letter from grief stricken Michael.
John had a sense of humor. While at Harvard, he swallowed a loose crown. Dad, being his dentist, instructed him on the fine points of reclaiming swallowed crowns. We got a post card from John simply stating “Struck Gold!”
John regarded his medical training, as well as the Outward Bound Survival Program, as useful preparations for the adventures that were so important to him.
In 1966 John worked on the Juneau Ice field Research Program with Maynard Miller, researching arctic geology, climatology and glaciology. On John’s death, Maynard felt an arctic mountain should be named after John.
In 1967 John led a mountaineering expedition to Cordillera, Peru. He fell in love with the rugged mountains, but was saddened by the enormity of poverty he witnessed.
In 1970 he spent 90 days with three other graduate students in a Jet Propulsion Lab mock space capsule in Pasadena constructed to test life support systems for extended stays in space. On departing the capsule, they were greeted by and photographed with Neil Armstrong. John wrote about these and other experiences for Summit magazine.
John entered Cal Tech in Geochemistry. His major professor was Samuel Epstein. John’s last major project was studying 8,000 years of climatic history by isotopic analysis of ancient wood. He felt at home at Cal Tech, and had become a dorm counselor. After his death the department started a scholarship in his name.
John died in August, 1971, caught up in an avalanche while climbing Mt Saint Elias, located on the Yukon Alaska border. John never married. When I last saw him early in 1971, John was in a new relationship and preparing for an adventure new to him.
John Henry Hall died on St. Elias on August, 11, 1971 at the age of 27.
Arlene Blum was a college classmate and climbing friend of John's. She recently revised a book she had written earlier called Breaking Trail. The original book just covered the first women-only climb of Annapurna, but the new edition covers a cross-section of her life as a climber which includes photographs of John and commentary. You can see some of these photos on her website: www.arleneblum.com.
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Steven Laird Henry
John had a multi-facted career as he went from Reed to Harvard medical School, where he was bored by the memorization. He moved on to school in California (Cal Tech?) and married while there. He always had interesting summer jobs, as the one for NASA(?) living in a bio-bubble, a precursor to space travel. After climbing in the Andes, he was lost while climbing a glacire in Alaska and the body never recovered.
Penny Kathleen Welch
As a follow-up to Steve's comments about John, I had an erie experience in ~1984 at a dinner party in Naperville, Illinois. Someone was talking about climbing Mt. Whitney and I chimed in that a gradeschool friend, John Hall, had died climbing it. From behind me, in another conversation group came a deep voice with an English accent saying, "No, John Hall did not die on Mt. Whitney. He died on Mt. Elias and I was the person who lent him my [radio phone] but it didn't help. I found it several years later on a slope of the mountain." What are the chances that you'd run into someone from England who was among the last to see your old 6th-grade boyfriend from Beaverton, Oregon before he died in an avalanche in Alaska?
Lauren John Paulson
For those interested in further information about John Hall, I heartily recommend a read of Arlene Blum's compelling book Breaking Trail. There is more there than one might imagine. First, they had a long romance. Second, there are pictures in her book of John Hall in his mountain climbing mien. This is not the pudgy, smiling John Hall of high school days. This is a chizled, fit, handsome serious mountain climber. Finally, Arlene's story blends in John's influence throughout. John got Arlene into climbing. Arlene then led some notable all-women climbs that are spellbinding stories in their own 'write'. I always admired John, but am glad for this invaluable book on an important part of his life. And another dimension of it all. Best Regards to all, Lauren Paulson
Thomas William Lawson (Tad) McCall
I had no idea of John's death. We all respected and liked John. I thank all of the contributors to this memory, and have nothing to add but my pleasant memories of John, which I am confident all my classmates share.
Jean Elizabeth Speckman (Eves)
John's younger brother, Bill, wanted to counter Steve Henry's comment that John married. Here's what Bill sent: "The last time I saw John was at Cal Tech months before he headed north to climb Logan and St Elias. My parents and I were on vacation heading to Mexico. An undergraduate in his residence hall had just committed suicide. John was feeling very bad, wishing there was something he could have done. As my parents and I were preparing to leave, John got me aside and confided that he intended to get married soon after his trip north."
posted by Jean Eves for Bill Hall 5/2015
Bob Wollmuth
Thanks to John's brother Bill for his message and to others who made comments. We all knew how smart John was but I certainly didn't know how talented and athletic he was (I don't think mountaineering was even in my vocabulary back then). How sad we lost someone so young and talented.