Hall Triplett

Writer, researcher, and retired lawyer Hall Triplett passed away at the age of 82 on Sunday, January 1st, 2023, at a nursing home in San Angelo, Texas. He died of complications from a massive stroke that occurred a few months prior.

Hall was born on May 21, 1940, in Jacksboro, Texas, the oldest of four children, to Silas Mercer Triplett, a Church of Christ preacher, and Joyce Marie Hall Triplett, who became a teacher. He was always called by his middle name, Hall; his full name was George Hall Triplett in honor of his mother's father. Growing up, Hall lived in eight different towns in Texas - Jacksboro, Granbury, Madisonville, Mineral Wells, Corsicana, Marlin, Stamford, and San Angelo - as well as Madill, Oklahoma. He attended high school and played football in Stamford. When his family moved to San Angelo before his senior year, the football boosters in Stamford arranged for Hall to live with a local family and paid for him to eat all his meals in restaurants so that he could stay and play football. After graduating from Stamford High School in 1958, Hall attended Abilene Christian College (now University) for three years. At ACC, Hall sang in the choir and played Uncle Chris in a production of "I Remember Mama".

In 1961 Hall joined the Navy and was a sailor and electronics technician in the submarine service until 1967. His base was Pearl Harbor. His Navy years started with training in San Diego and brought him to many places. He especially loved Japan, which he visited a number of times while in the Navy, always sending gifts home, such as three bolts of raw Japanese silk for his sister Pam and a set of black matte dishes for his mother. He was also stationed in Seattle and San Francisco, where he began going to see a lot of live music, something he would continue to do throughout his life.

Upon leaving the Navy, Hall enrolled in The University of Hawaii and majored in philosophy. In 1967, he married Linda Larson. While at The University of Hawaii, Hall founded and led Veterans for Peace, and served a year as president of the University Democrats. After graduating with his Bachelor's degree in 1969, he stayed in Honolulu and was hired by the American Friends Service Committee to organize a conference on "Human Needs vs. Military Needs". They also sent him to attend peace conferences in Washington, D.C., and New York City. Hall was then recruited by United Public Workers, a labor union in Honolulu. He represented hospital workers, negotiating contracts and handling grievances. During that time, Hall helped start and served a term as president of the Democratic Action Group, an organization involved in local politics, advocating for progressive policies and candidates.

In 1971, Hall left his position at United Public Workers to attend Law School at the University of Kansas, where he was a member of The Law Review. Hall and Linda's first daughter Rachel was born in Kansas in 1971. After graduating from law school in 1974, Hall and Linda moved to Chicago, where Hall worked for a labor law firm and a legal publication. In 1975, Hall and Linda's youngest daughter Ginna was born. From 1976 to 1978, Hall worked for the Criminal Defense Consortium of Cook County, a pilot neighborhood public defender system that aimed to make the legal system more equitable. When the grant through which that organization was funded was not renewed, Hall worked for several years in private practice and later worked for the Public Guardian's Office in Cook County.

In 1985, Hall founded and served as president of "Let There Be Lights", a group that grew to 1,500 members, advocating for lights to be installed at Wrigley Field so that the Chicago Cubs could have night games like every other professional baseball team at that time. Cubs management said they would need to leave the city unless they could install lights but a group of homeowners in the vicinity was fighting against lights for fear of traffic and parking issues. Hall saw installing lights as the egalitarian thing to do because night games would allow more working people to attend games. He also understood the cultural and economic importance of keeping the Cubs in Wrigley Field. Hall and other members printed signs and t-shirts with "Let There Be Lights" in a biblical calligraphic font in a makeshift silkscreen workshop in his garage. In 1988, lights were finally installed in Wrigley Field and the Cubs began playing night games.

In 1993, Hall moved back to San Angelo, Texas, and devoted himself to his research and writing endeavors. He spent many years researching Sigmund Freud, which included trips to Vienna, Austria. His article, "The Misnomer of Freud's 'Seduction Theory'", was published in the Journal of the History of Ideas in 2004. He researched and wrote about a variety of other topics as well. In 2010, his op-ed, "Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church" was published in the San Angelo Standard-Times. He produced numerous unpublished works, including a full-length book. Hall was a fixture at the Tom Green County Stephens Central library, where he was known as "Mr. T." and spent hours almost every day at his regular table researching and writing. "I will miss that man every time I step into the library," says Librarian Leah Barbee, who knew Hall for four years. She recalls, "He and I had numerous conversations about a wide variety of topics, including, of course, Sigmund Freud. Mr. T. spent a lifetime researching Freud. He knew facts that he could document. He did his research 'old school,' leaving no stone unturned."

Hall was truly a lifelong learner and shared his curiosity and love of learning with his daughters. When his daughter Rachel was in Kindergarten, her teacher told the class about the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum. The exhibit was extremely popular and the lines were prohibitively long, so Hall took Rachel and they camped overnight on the museum steps in sleeping bags to ensure they could see the exhibit. Hall was in the midst of new research and writing endeavors up until his death. He was a scholar of history and passionate about justice. He diligently and thoroughly studied the Constitution of The United States, often carrying around a pocket-sized copy. Hall got very excited about language. He loved discussing literature and helping his daughters with essays. His daughter Ginna remembers how enthusiastically he helped her analyze T.S. Elliot's poem "The Hollow Men" for a school essay once - sitting in a diner excitingly teasing apart the symbolism and literary devices.

Hall loved music and taught himself to play the four-string guitar, the ukulele, and the concertina. He loved a wide variety of musical genres, including folk, jazz, classical, and opera. While living in Chicago, he regularly attended operas at the Lyric Opera. He had a wonderful voice and loved to sing. He played the ukulele and sang bedtime songs, such as the lullaby "Goodnight" by The Beatles and the protest song, "M.T.A." by the Kingston Trio, to his daughters when they were little. He was a big hit in featured roles in the faculty-parent musical productions of Damn Yankees and Pajama Game at Francis W. Parker School in Chicago, where his daughters were students.

In addition to music, Hall's hobbies included gardening, photography, and spending time in nature. He cultivated his talent for gardening in Chicago, where he grew a gorgeous plethora of flowers and vegetables in his front and back yards. He continued gardening in San Angelo. He laid out his gardens artfully, using rocks and stones he collected to create curved pathways and borders. "He loved gardening - both flowers and vegetables (especially tomatoes!) - and was always eager to share some of his knowledge, as well as his plants. I have several he gave me and I think of him every time I see them!" remembers his friend Joe. Hall was a wonderful photographer, leaving behind many beautiful photographs of his daughters, Chicago, and nature, which he took with a 35-millimeter camera. He loved road trips and exploring different places. He and Linda took their daughters on several camping trips when they were young, including to Lake Superior in Northern Wisconsin and the Gulf of Mexico in the Florida panhandle.

Hall was gregarious and loved to strike up conversations with friends and strangers alike. His friend Joe remembers him as "sociable, easy to make friends with, easy to talk to, always glad to see me. Quite a thinker - and writer! Very passionate about his ideals with a strong sense of right and wrong and had no fear or reluctance in supporting what he saw as right."

Over the years, Hall had several feline companions who shared his life and enjoyed his beautiful gardens. First were Tiger and Panther, adopted when his daughters were young. Later he rescued two strays, Moses and Maurice, from his neighborhood in Chicago. In San Angelo, there was Molly, a beautiful long-haired stray he took in. While in the hospital following his massive stroke, he reflected on the cats in his life, saying, "They were sweet little living creatures."

Hall grew up in The Church of Christ, his father being a Church of Christ preacher. In his twenties in Honolulu, Hall began attending Quaker Friends Meetings, which he continued doing in Lawrence, Kansas while in Law School, and then he and his wife became members of the Downers Grove Friends Meeting when they moved to Chicago. Later in life, Hall frequently attended Unitarian Church services.

Hall is survived by his two daughters, Rachel Triplett and Ginna Triplett; his grandson Dewey Donahue and granddaughter Greta Donahue; and sisters Phyllis Cheshier and Pamela Gulick. He is preceded in death by his parents Silas and Joyce Triplett and his brother John Triplett.

A celebration of Hall's life is being planned for the Spring of 2023.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Southern Poverty Law Center or The Nature Conservancy.