Edwin S. Hall Jr.

1939 - 2020

Archaeologist, storyteller, mentor, scholar, professor - Ed Hall wore many hats during his 80 years.
He was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1939 and grew up in Tacoma, Washington, where he developed a love of mountain climbing. During high school and college he climbed Mount Rainer, Mount Adams, Mount St. Helens, Mount Hood and Mount Baker.
Ed received both his undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees from Yale University and began his academic career as an assistant professor in the department of Anthropology at Ohio State in 1966. He came to SUNY Brockport in 1971 where he served as chair of the Anthropology Department from 1977-1984. He lived in Brockport, New York, until his death on June 2, but his heart was always in Alaska, where he spent more than 30 field seasons
He was a botany major as an undergraduate, but a trip to the Brooks Range in northern Alaska after his freshman college year changed the direction of his interests. There his introduction to archaeology and the native people of Alaska solidified his commitment to studying the prehistory and cultures of Arctic Alaska.
A preeminent Alaskan Arctic scholar, Ed published more than 100 papers, articles, and books on northern anthropology. In addition to his academic work, he founded an archaeological consulting service focused on the identification of cultural resources in advance of oil and mineral exploration and extraction in the far north.
Ed was a collector - first stamps as a youth, then exotic shells, then Northwest Coast Native and Inuit art, especially prints which became a later direction of his scholarship. He was a great storyteller with a quick wit, favoring long jokes ending in puns.
He was adventurous. The pinnacle of a family vacation was a journey to the highlands of Papua New Guinea. He loved flying. He thought nothing of chartering a small plane to fly from Kotzebue to Anaktuvuk Pass, a route unfamiliar to the pilot who flew with a map spread on his lap, only to be diverted by Ed to circle several archaeological sites enroute.
Ed was an ideas person, skilled at taking a focused topic and drilling into it. His study of the changes brought by snowmobiles to Alaskan Eskimo communities when they replaced dog teams in the late 1960s is a masterful example.
Ed married twice, to Leona Baker (1963–1975) and to Margay Blackman (1977 –1996). He is survived by his children, Justin (Betsy) Hall, Meryn Hall, and granddaughters Rachel and Sophie Hall, several cousins, nieces and nephews. He also leaves behind his dedicated caretakers Jen, Denise and especially Joel.
For roughly half his life Ed had multiple sclerosis. It forced his early retirement from SUNY Brockport and eventually from active fieldwork and scholarship. He made his last field trip in 1994 when colleagues helicoptered him and his wheelchair to an archaeological site at the top of a mesa on the Arctic slope. A memorable closure, in the company of fellow archaeologists, to a rich career.
A memorial service will be held at a later date in Washington State. If you wish to make a donation in Ed's memory, please consider the Edwin S. Hall Jr. scholarship in the Department of Anthropology at SUNY Brockport.