James Hall

Dr. James Whitney Hall III

Dr. James Whitney Hall III, 83, a retired physician, avid sportsman and writer passed away unexpectedly on March 25, 2016.

He was known as Jim or Doc Hall to his friends and family. Jim was born in Chicago on June 6, 1933 to James Whitney Hall II and Dorothy Chapline Hall. When Jim was 13 years old, the family moved to Traverse City Michigan where he developed his lifelong passion for hunting and fishing that spanned the United States and many countries worldwide.

He attended Dartmouth College, BA 1955, Dartmouth Medical School, 1956 and Harvard Medical School, MD 1958. Jim married Kay Sue Lepley in 1956 and together they had 4 children. Following his graduation, Jim did his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Minnesota. He moved the family west to set up his Internal Medicine practice in Palo Alto California where he also taught at the Stanford University Medical School as an Associate Professor.

Jim's passion for the outdoors brought the family to Medford, Oregon in 1973 where he practiced medicine for 20 years. Jim loved the personal relationships he established with his patients. He spoke often about how fond he was of his patients in both Palo Alto and Oregon and how much he enjoyed taking care of them. He was in the process of writing a book titled "Patients and Friends" at the time of his death. After retiring from Medical practice, Jim became a full time professional writer, chronicling his outdoor adventures in his well-loved book Doc Hall's Journal, The Corey Ford Sporting Treasury, and numerous articles in Outdoor magazines. Jim was the fictionalized character "Doc Hall" in the story series by Corey Ford titled "Minutes of the lower Forty" in Field and Stream magazine.

His three children survive him, James W. Hall lV, Deborah Hall McMicking, Wendy A. Hall, his seven grandchildren and his beloved black lab Maquela. He was proceeded in death by his daughter Diane Sue Hall in 1976. A celebration of Jim's life will be held at a later date.