Robert Anderson Hall Jr. ’31

Robert Anderson Hall Jr. died Dec. 2, 1997, at the Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca, N.Y., of Parkinson's disease.

Bob was our class's gift to the science of linguistics. After his AB, he earned his MA from Chicago U. and his doctorate from the U. of Rome. He taught courses in modern languages at the U. of Puerto Rico, Princeton, and Brown. He became associate professor of linguistics at Cornell in 1946, full professor in 1950, and professor emeritus of linguistics and Italian in 1976.

Bob published over 50 books and more than 500 articles relating to linguistics, and became president of the Linguistic Assn. of Canada and the U.S. in 1984. He was a Guggenheim Fellow and a Fulbright lecturer. During WWII, Bob took part in the Army's Intensive Language Program, teaching, Italian, French, and Melanesian Pidgin.

As a sideline, Bob sang in choirs and choruses, and composed a Mass (you guessed it) in Latin.

His first wife, the mother of his children, Frances I. Adkins, died in 1975. He is survived by his second wife, Alice M. ColbyHall, son Philip, daughters Diana Goodal and Caroline Erickson, six grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. Alice, Bob's widow, has had an extraordinary career of her own, recently mentioned in '31's class notes.

The Class of 1931