Thomas Hall

1931 - 2017

Thomas Livingston Hall, MD, DrPH

August 13, 1931 – May 20, 2017

Thomas Livingston Hall, MD, DPH, was in Zen Hospice in San Francisco for almost three weeks when he transitioned from life to death from AML (acute myeloid leukemia) around noon on Saturday, May 20, 2017. He was cared for with grace and respect by all the hospice staff, and died peacefully, with Liz (his wife), Tefel (his son), and Michi (Tefel's wife) at his side. He died the way he lived – with exquisite timing, care for the feelings of others, timid in the face of adversity (whether real or imagined) but staunchly, adventurously, and with his mind and heart squarely on things that mattered most.
"Intelligence" and "integrity" are two words which capture Tom Hall's essence: intelligence in work and home with a library to prove it, and integrity in life as there was not an insincere bone in his body.
Born August 14, 1931, in Great Barrington, MA, Tom was the first of four children of Livingston Hall and Elizabeth Blodgett Hall, well-loved educators at Harvard Law School, Concord Academy, and Simon's Rock. Tom spent two years at Reed College followed by two at Harvard where he received a BA in history, and later he returned to receive an MD and MPH. He subsequently received a Doctor of Public Health in International Health from Johns Hopkins University and was on the Hopkins faculty until 1971.
He lived eight years in Puerto Rico and South America, and was on the faculty of UNC/Chapel Hill during 1971-79. His health-related career involved providing clinical services in rural Puerto Rico, national health workforce planning studies via the World Health Organization, directing a population studies center at UNC, directing a health care planning office in Seattle, and several years of health planning in New Zealand. In 1986 he came to San Francisco, and from 1988 to 1996 he directed a postdoctoral training program in HIV/AIDS prevention research at UCSF. After retirement he volunteered to teach and mentor in global health and until his death, he worked with the Consortium of Universities for Global Health.
Tom married a medical school classmate, Françoise Puvrez Hall and they raised their three children in French, English and Spanish during their stays in Puerto Rico, Peru, Chile and the U.S. He was divorced in 1976, was married for several years to Mary Moore, and then met the apple of his eye for a sail to New Zealand, Elizabeth McLoughlin, in 1983. After many adventures and a thorough check-out, they married in 1990.
Tom was adventurous, endlessly curious, and an avid reader. He was a member of the Explorers Club, the Cruising Club of America, a book club, and traveled extensively internationally for both work (with WHO, USAID, World Bank) and pleasure. His avocations included whitewater canoeing with his sons, hiking with his daughter and friends, long distance biking with his wife, and sailing with family and friends. Among his many sailing trips were those from Seattle to New Zealand, almost to Cape Horn, from Easter Island to Pitcairn and the Societies, and up to 80 degrees north and the Arctic ice pack. In the 2000s he and his wife, often accompanied by friends, spent six summers cruising from Washington up the Inside Passage to northern British Columbia and Alaska. He also loved small airplane exploring and camping and once soared to 31,000 feet in a glider.
Always a planner, he enjoyed losing himself in his work, whether it was a computer model for WHO to help inform national policies affecting the health workforce supply and demand, or his many other projects concerned with population, health planning, HIV prevention and teaching global health. In his last two years, while coping with acute myeloid leukemia, he became a junior philanthropist focused on four areas of special interest: peace and security, the environment, social justice, and global health and population.
Dr. Hall will always be loved by his dear wife, Elizabeth McLoughlin of San Francisco, his siblings: Margaret Whitfield, Elizabeth Richardson, both in California, and John Hall in Jerusalem; and his children: Eric on Lopez Island in WA, Tefel in San Francisco, and Rachel Ames in Boulder, CO, as well as his many friends and colleagues.
Services will be in private after cremation, but a memorial gathering will be held later. No flowers are necessary, but if you wish, you may donate in his name to your charity of choice that seeks to make the world a better place.
Funeral arrangements by Fernwood Funeral Home in Mill Valley, CA. 415-383-7100.