Bill Hall dies at 81

Bill Hall, whose humanity- and humor-laced editorials made the Lewiston Tribune opinion page a must-read for more than a generation, died Monday afternoon after a long battle with prostate cancer. He turned 81 Saturday.

Hall came to the Tribune in 1965 after starting his career in Pocatello at the Idaho State Journal. He succeeded Bill Johnston, the Orofino native who had been the Tribune's managing editor and lead editorial writer, before retiring in 2002.

Retired Tribune editor and publisher A.L. "Butch" Alford Jr., president of Lewiston Tribune parent company TPC Holdings, said he only had concerns about his longtime colleague two times. The first was when he arrived.

"Would this young guy from Pocatello have the firepower to succeed Johnston, who authored fiery and progressive editorials and a well-read column, 'Where Angels Fear?' " Alford said. "Within two months, my concerns forever disappeared. (Hall) was the real deal."

Alford said his second concern came decades later with Hall's cancer diagnosis in 2016.

"As it happens, cancer won, but not without the Bill Hall mixture of humor, understanding and comradeship with so many," he said. "Bill's death is the loss of an outstanding person, husband, journalist and friend. This city, region and state are enriched by his 53 years of making Lewiston his home and his garden."

Former Tribune Managing Editor Jay Shelledy said Hall's writing combined pithy prose and cut-to-the-chase critiques.

"And he mixed it all with a deadly sense of humor that was truly effective," Shelledy said. "He made the editorial pages of the Tribune the best-read pages in the paper, flat-out."

Hall's editorials and columns sparked vigorous dialogue in the community by provoking great letters to the editor, he added, creating a rare dynamic in the newspaper business. And Hall always seasoned his pieces with his concern for his fellow human beings.

"He had a great moral compass, and he sensed what was right, and what wasn't," Shelledy said. "His effect was all the more encouraging for me because he had that progressive bent toward what was right. He had that sense of what was fair, and that doesn't always follow dogma."

Retired Tribune opinion page editor Jim Fisher shared a tiny office with Hall for 15 years. He called Hall "old school" in the best kind of way, watching him churn out seven editorials and four columns every week.

"I don't know anybody in newspaperdom who did that," Fisher said. "He was great at writing short, direct sentences that everybody got. Even people who hated his editorials tended to like his columns. Those were the kind of columns that struck common nerves in all the readers."

Fisher said Hall was the best editorial writer in the state for decades. "I would hear people talk about him with praise and I would hear people talk about him with disgust. But people would talk about him."

And it was Hall's writing that led Fisher to the Tribune in the first place. He first chanced across a Hall piece in 1967, when he was an undergraduate student at Washington State University. Fisher said he subscribed to Spokane's Spokesman-Review, but its opinion page was "lackluster."

"I discovered this little paper in Lewiston writing editorials criticizing the war in Vietnam and I was just amazed," he said. "I thought this was one hell of a paper I'd like to have something to do with someday."

Hall crossed over into politics in 1975 to become a press aide and speechwriter for Frank Church, rising to become the Idaho Senator's press secretary. By December, Hall shifted to the Church for President Committee as the campaign's national press secretary.

He continued to advise local politicians after returning to the Tribune in 1976, including retired Lewiston doctor and former Idaho House of Representatives Minority Leader John Rusche. When Rusche got started in politics, Hall would help him by going into the Tribune vaults to see what worked - and what didn't - for others in the political realm.

"He knew an incredible amount about the community here, and the state in general," Rusche said. "He was a dear friend and I will miss him. I'm sad for myself, and his friends and the coffee group at 10 a.m. and especially for (wife) Sharon (Taylor-Hall). The two of them had such a great life together. I'm just sad."

Retired educator and former Lewiston City Councilor Dennis Ohrtman also was a member of the coffee group, which still meets. He said Hall was a funny man who liked to pontificate and hold court, and always had something to say.

"He had incredibly strong political views and was not to be deterred by stupidity," Ohrtman said. "He liked to surround himself with people who think, have a good glass of wine and who like to sing a good song. Everybody found something in his articles to cuss or discuss or to laugh about,"

Ohrtman also said the women of Lewiston might have considered him the best flirt in town, but he settled down with Taylor-Hall.

"He was a man who joyfully enjoyed the relationship he had with his wife."

Wilbert D. "Bill" Hall was born May 19, 1937, at Nampa to Beulah and Wilbert P. Hall. He lived on a Kuna farm until age 9, when his father began working at a Nampa grocery store. The family also spent time in New Plymouth, Phoenix and Boise.

Hall graduated in 1955 from Boise High School, where he was assistant editor and editorial writer on the school newspaper. He won an Idaho State Journal scholarship in his senior year to attend Idaho State College (later Idaho State University) in Pocatello, and served as a columnist, editorial writer and editor-in-chief of the college newspaper, the Bengal.

His first taste of the public relations side of the media business came while he was a student, when he spent two summers as the publicity director for the Yellowstone Park Co. in Yellowstone National Park.

He joined the Journal staff in 1957 while still a student, working as a part-time reporter. He went to full time in 1958 and became the paper's city editor a year later and started writing the column "Political Scratchpad" and covering politics.

Hall also married Carmel Serrano of Pocatello in 1958. Their daughter, Stacy, was born in 1959, and son Michael came along in 1960. The couple divorced in 1980.

His deep interest in politics led him to become the Journal's political and education writer in 1961. He relished the role, which took him around the state and the West. He covered multiple sessions of the Idaho Legislature, state political conventions, the Western States Republican Conference in Sun Valley in 1961, the Western States Democratic Conference in Salt Lake City in 1963 and the Republican National Convention in San Francisco in 1964.

Civic involvement also became an important topic for Hall in his early years as a newspaperman. He was a member of the Pocatello Lions Club, an officer in the Idaho Press Club, a member of the Pocatello Civil Rights Committee, a charter member of the Capitol Correspondents Association in Boise and a board member of the Idaho State University Alumni Association.

The Halls pulled up stakes in 1965, when Bill took his longtime position with the Lewiston Morning Tribune. An announcement in the May 16, 1965 Tribune declared "Newsman Arrives."

"Mr and Mrs. Wilbur (Bill) Hall and two children arrived at Lewiston late Saturday from Pocatello," the announcement said, misspelling Hall's first name. "He will become editorial page editor this summer and meanwhile will work as a reporter and desk man."

His first decade in Lewiston was peppered with achievements and honors, including multiple writing awards. The Idaho Wildlife Federation named Hall the conservation communicator of the year in 1969 for his editorials supporting wild rivers and opposing additional dam construction on the middle Snake River. The American Association for Conservation Information gave him its award of merit in 1970.

Also in 1970, the Lewiston Civic Theatre staged Hall's play, "Gifford Eaton - a Leader For Our Time," which the Tribune described as "a three act drama with comic overtones." His alma mater, ISU, produced the play in 1971.

After Hall left the Church presidential campaign in June of 1976, he returned to his editorial desk at the Tribune, feeling like the senator's run would be "well launched" after the Ohio, New Jersey and California primaries.

"At that time I will have fulfilled my obligation and I will be able to return to my family, my newspaper and my garden," Hall said in the May 18, 1976 Tribune.

Managing Editor Ladd Hamilton welcomed the return, saying the editorial page deserved the attention of a full-time writer and editor with Hall's qualifications.

"We have always felt that Bill Hall's infatuation with national politics was a temporary affliction and we are delighted that he has recovered enough to resume productive work," Hamilton quipped in the Tribune.

After his divorce from Carmel in 1980, he married linguist and sculptor Sharon Taylor in May 1985. In a February column that year, Hall introduced Tribune readers to his new fiancee. He sweetly described their first several encounters, which consisted of them making eyes at each other across a Lewiston restaurant.

Hall eventually screwed up the courage to introduce himself, and they found themselves to be effortlessly compatible. In the column where he introduced Taylor to Tribune readers, he noted their mutual love of language, along with a few other things.

"We found we have other things in common - a love of chicken and of dogwood trees and of John Steinbeck and of Willie Nelson and of Bach," Hall wrote. "And her favorite newspaper columnist is the same as my own."

Hall published several books over his career and retirement, including "Bill Hall and the Killer Chicken" in 1981, "Bill Hall's Son of Killer Chicken" in 1983, "Frank Church, D.C. and Me" in 1995, and "The Cat Butler" in 2009.

Hall spent his later years gardening, traveling and entertaining with Taylor-Hall. Ohrtman said he reflected on Hall's life recently as he was rubbing his feet to give him comfort before he died.

"Those feet have walked a million miles in this town and all over Italy as well," he said. "They have had adventures."

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Mills may be contacted at jmills@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2266. Reporter Eric Barker contributed to this story.