65
Former Faculty:
Alan Neidlinger Hall
Alan Hall, a teacher and administrator at
St. Paul’s for 40 years, died peacefully at
HillHouse in Bath, Maine, on August 22,
2015. He was 89 and a former longtime
resident of Hopkinton, N.H.
For 12 years Mr. Hall edited
Alumni Horae
,
and served twice as acting executive dir-
ector of the SPS Alumni Association. In
retirement, he continued as a consultant for
and contributor to the School’s publications.
Mr. Hall was born on June 10, 1926, in
Orange, N.J., the son of Helen Isabel Neid-
linger Hall and Edwin Martin Hall. His
early education was in the East Orange,
N.J., public schools and later at Willing-
ton School in Putney, England, where he
lived from 1936 to 1939. He graduated
from Woodrow Wilson High School,
Washington, D.C., in 1942, where he
was class poet, and from Deerfield
Academy (Mass.) in 1943.
He matriculated at Dartmouth
College in June 1943 with the Class of
1947; during the accelerated war year
(1943-44) he co-managed the varsity
soccer team, sang in the Glee Club, played
varsity lacrosse, worked at the Baker Library
reserve desk and as a Cohen Scholar of
the Dartmouth Dining Association, and
was elected to Cabin and Trail of the Dart-
mouth Outing Club.
Drafted into the U.S. Navy in July 1944
in Newark, N.J., Mr. Hall attended recruit
training and radio school at the U.S. Naval
Training Center, Bainbridge, Md., and
served aboard the destroyer tender
U.S.S.
Denebola
(AD-12) in the Atlantic and
Pacific and aboard the patrol craft
U.S.S.
PC-788
. In June 1946, he was discharged
at a Navy center in Shoemaker, Calif., as
a Radioman Third Class.
Mr. Hall returned to Dartmouth in the
fall of 1946, majoring in English and
graduating
cum laude
as a Rufus Choate
Scholar in 1949. He was a member of the
Dartmouth Outing Club, co-manager of
the varsity ski team, a member of the
Winter Sports Council, and editor of
The
Trail-Blazer
. Mr. Hall was a counselor at
the Hanover Inn Ski School for a number
of years, a member of the Ski Club Car-
cajou, and worked at Sun Valley, Idaho.
Mr. Hall began his 43-year teaching
career in 1949 at Williston Academy
(Mass.), where he taught English and
coached soccer, skiing, and track. In order
to maintain his eligibility for his G.I. Bill
benefits, he studied at the University of
Pennsylvania from 1951 to 1952, where
he also taught freshman English compo-
sition and received his A.M.
of the SPS Master Players, the faculty
dramatic group, performing notably as
the judge in “Ten Little Indians” at the
Palace Theater in Manchester, N.H.
Mr. Hall was a trustee emeritus of
Wilbraham and Monson Academy in
Massachusetts, and in the 1970s he served
on committees at Deerfield Academy and
Middlesex School to study the transition
to co-education. He was a member of the
New England Association of Schools and
Colleges evaluation teams for Salisbury
School, Governor’s Academy, and Roxbury
Latin School.
In the Concord community, Mr. Hall
was a director of the Concord Boys Club
and served as president for one term.
In the late 50s and early 60s he had
been president and treasurer of the
New Hampshire Council for Better
Schools and was involved over the
years with various committees of
the N.H. Department of Education.
He also was a troop committeeman
of Boy Scout Troop 78 at the South
Congregational Church.
Mr. Hall’s poetry appeared in many
publications, including
Good House-
keeping
, while his articles appeared in
such varied magazines as
The Classical
Journal
and
Skiing
.
After retiring to Hopkinton, N.H.,
Mr. Hall was for many years a volunteer
in the Emergency Department of Con-
cord Hospital, a docent at the Museum
of New Hampshire History in Concord,
and a board member of the Hopkinton
Historical Society. He was also a lector
and a member of the Bishop’s Committee
of St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church
in Dunbarton, N.H.
For 40 years, Mr. Hall and his family
summered on the rocky banks of the
Damariscotta River in South Bristol, Maine,
in a house he helped build. After 56 years
in the Concord area, Mr. Hall moved in
2009 to Thornton Oaks, a retirement com-
munity in Brunswick, Maine.
Mr. Hall was predeceased in 2003 by his
wife, Merry. He is survived by three sons,
Christopher, Newell, and Benjamin ’84, and
their spouses; and seven grandchildren.
In 1947, Mr. Hall met Margaret Hyde
“Merry” Gilpin of West Chester, Pa., while
skiing in Stowe, Vt. The couple was married
in 1950.
In the fall of 1952, Mr. Hall joined the
faculty of St. Paul’s School to teach Eng-
lish, retiring from the classroom in 1992.
During that period he taught students in
the Second through Sixth Forms, served
twice as head of the English Department
and twice as the director of the Advanced
Studies Program. He also taught English
at the ASP for many years.
In addition to his teaching, Mr. Hall held
various posts as director of activities,
director of studies and college adviser,
director of publications, and head of the
Upper School. He coached the SPS ski
team, coached club and J.V. soccer, and
served as a high school boys lacrosse
referee. He was active in many productions
