In memoriam
George Fredrick Hall
George F. Hall, a member of ASA and SSSA for 50 years, passed away on 26 Apr. 2020 at the age of 89. He was born 5 Mar. 1931 in Spickard, MO, and spent many of his formative years on the family farm in northeast Illinois. Following high school, he also tried his hand at farming before being inducted into the military. He was assigned to the U.S. 8th Army after basic training and served in Korea during 1953–1955. In 1955, Hall enrolled at Illinois State University on the GI Bill with the goal of becoming a vocational agriculture teacher. After a year, he transferred to the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana where he discovered his academic passion for soils while taking the introductory soil science class.
Hall completed his B.Sc. in Agronomy in 1959 and his M.Sc. in soil science in 1961. His desire to learn more about the interactions between soil genesis, geomorphology, and glacial stratigraphy led him to begin Ph.D. studies at Iowa State University under the guidance of Dr. Robert V. Ruhe, who directed the landmark USDA Soil Geomorphology Project on the Iowan Erosion Surface of eastern Iowa. After completing his dissertation in 1965, Hall joined the faculty at Ohio State University in Columbus where he taught and conducted research on topics related to soil genesis and classification for the next 30 years. Hundreds of students took his pedology courses and many ultimately established successful careers in soil mapping, conservation, and natural resource management. He will be remembered by his students and advisees as an excellent teacher, a wise and understanding mentor, and an inspiring role model.
Hall played a major leadership role in the Ohio Cooperative Soil Survey Program as the university’s representative on the Ohio Soil Inventory Board for almost 20 years. He was a founding member of the Association of Ohio Pedologists and served the organization as both its editor and president.
Hall was supported in all that he did by Carol, his wife of 61 years (also recently deceased). Together, they raised two outstanding children, Laura and Roger.
Mark Stack
Mark Stack, 74, a 32-year member of ASA, passed away peacefully in his sleep in Missoula, MT on 10 May 2019. He was born in Bloomington, IL on 6 Feb. 1945 and received a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Illinois in 1967. That same year, he attended Navy OCS School in Newport, RI and was commissioned an Ensign. He was assigned to the USS Haverfield DER-393 as an engineering officer with home port in Pearl Harbor, HI. In 1969, he was assigned as a Staff Officer to Commander Landing Ship Squadron Two (LST Division) based at Vung Tau, Vietnam. He was released from active duty in July 1970.
After working several years as a certified public accountant, he decided a career change was needed, so he started studies in agriculture at Colorado State University. During summers, he worked as a hybrid seed corn field inspector in Illinois, a crop scout in Nebraska, at feed mills in Colorado, and as a field inspector for the Colorado Seed Growers Association.
In 1984, he embarked on a new career after graduating from Colorado State University with a degree in agronomy. He worked at the Southwestern Colorado Research Center (Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station) located near Yellow Jacket, CO from 1985 until his retirement in 2008. His final position at the Research Center was as Research Associate and Manager. He authored many research papers on alfalfa, chickpeas, sunflowers, garbanzo beans, and irrigation methods. He also owned and managed a 327-acre irrigated farm (alfalfa and small grains) in Pleasant View, CO.
He was preceded in death by his parents, William and Dorothy Stack; and sister, Anne Alberts. He is survived by his sister, Mary Stack, Normal, IL; and brothers, Brian Stack (Carol), Salisbury MD, and David Stack (Lillian), Missoula, MT.
Text © . The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.
