Captain Richard B. "R.B." Hall II

Captain Richard B. Hall II, MD, USN (Ret.) of Norfolk, Virginia, passed away on 2 June 2025. He was 80 years old.

Born in Washington, D.C., "R.B." grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and attended Central High School. His academic excellence earned him a congressional appointment to the United States Naval Academy, where he studied physics and graduated as a valued member of the 5th Company with the Class of 1967. A cherished highlight during his time at Annapolis was meeting the former Jane Faye James on a blind date during June Week; they married in April of 1968.

Upon graduation, R.B. was commissioned as an Engineering Duty Officer with the U.S. Navy. His sea duty aboard the USS Belknap included two tours in Vietnam; many, many letters to his beloved Jane were written floating off the Gulf of Tonkin. Following his service in Vietnam, R.B. chose a surprise career path: He enrolled at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville, Virginia, graduating in 1976.

In 1977, R.B. returned to active duty in the Navy to complete his Family Practice residency. He went on to serve as a family and emergency physician at various Naval bases, including Patuxent River, Maryland; Naples, Italy; Newport, Rhode Island; and Norfolk, Virginia. Administrative roles during this time included positions as Department Head for Family Practice, Director of Emergency Services, and Director of Medical Services.

In the 1990s, R.B.'s career turned to leadership: He served as Executive Officer at the new U.S. Naval Hospital Sigonella (Sicily, Italy), and Commanding Officer of Naval Hospital Groton (CT). In 1997, R.B. was selected as Fleet Surgeon for the U.S. Sixth Fleet (the Mediterranean and Black Sea Fleet) with a high operational tempo relating to the Kosovo Campaign, and numerous regional conflicts.

In 2000, he was selected as Command Surgeon for the U.S. European Command, with responsibility for all U.S. military operations in Europe, most of Africa, and portions of the Middle East. His command responsibilities included oversight over more than 10,000 medical personnel, 12 major hospitals, 90 clinics, and 500,000 covered lives.

In his roles as Fleet Surgeon and Command Surgeon, R.B. found enormous satisfaction in his international humanitarian work and coordinating life saving responses to an ever-changing array of international medical crises. Those included the U.S. response in Africa to Ebola and Malaria outbreaks and the AIDS pandemic; Operation Enduring Freedom for the Afghanistan campaign; the USS COLE bombing; the Turkish earthquake of 2000; and U.S. humanitarian relief camps in Albania, Macedonia, and Kosovo following the Kosovo Campaign in 1999.

R.B. rounded out his career in clinical medicine as a physician at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, Virginia, and as Supervisor of Occupational Health at Naval Station Norfolk. Following his retirement, R.B. split his time – along with his lifelong partner in adventure, Jane – between homes in Norfolk, Virginia, and Venice, Italy.

R.B. is survived by his loving wife, Jane; his daughters, Jessica, Amanda, and Alexandra; and his grandchildren, Abigail, Oscar, Julia, Griffin, and Vivian.

Captain Hall will be buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery on October 24th at 11 a.m. Attendees must arrive at the cemetery via Memorial Avenue at 10:15 a.m. For more information about attending a service, including required forms of identification, please visit https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Funerals/Attending-a-Funeral. All vehicle drivers will need a REAL ID-compliant state driver's license.

For those unable to attend the event, a live-stream will be available at https://my.anc.media/4nu4NrJ.

Memorial donations may be made to the Sierra Club, Friends of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the ACLU.