Hubert H. Hall

Memorial services for Hubert H. “Hub” Hall, 82, Lecompton, will be at 1 p.m. Friday at Warren-McElwain Mortuary in Lawrence. Private inurnment will be at a later date in the Gardner Cemetery in Gardner.
Mr. Hall died Saturday, Sept. 25, 2010, at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.
He was born July 29, 1928, in Berkeley, Calif., the son of Dr. E. Raymond and Mary Harkey Hall.
His family moved to Lawrence in June 1944. He graduated from Liberty Memorial High School in 1945. He then attended Kansas University and graduated in 1949 with a degree in geology. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1952.
He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.
Following graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, Mr. Hall joined Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (now ExxonMobil) in 1952 in Tulsa, Okla. During his 34 years as a petroleum geologist with Exxon, he explored for oil and gas in many parts of the world. For the last 20 years with Exxon, he led its exploration in Malaysia, the southeastern United States, the Middle East, North Africa, Ireland and England. These assignments resulted in major oil and gas discoveries offshore of Malaysia and in the North Sea. He retired in London in October 1986. He then returned to Lawrence, moving to rural Lecompton in 1989.
Following his retirement, Mr. Hall was active in local community and university organizations. He served as chairman of the KU Geology Advisory Board from 1990 to 1995, and as chairman of the KU Natural History Museum Board from 1997 until 1999. He was a member of the KU Chancellors Club and the Outlook Society. He was a member of the Lecompton United Methodist Church. He was a life member of the Lecompton Historical Society and the Douglas County Historical Society, and was active in preserving and restoring tallgrass prairie and other endangered wildlife habitats. He and his wife established the Hall Nature Preserve in rural Lecompton through a gift of 116 acres to the KU Endowment Association.
He married Kathleen McBride on Sept. 3, 1949, in Wichita. She survives of the home. Other survivors include two brothers, William J., of Urbana, Ill., and Benjamin D., of Bellevue, Wash.; and several nieces, nephews and great-nieces and -nephews.
The family suggests memorials to the Lecompton Historical Society or to the Lawrence Humane Society, sent in care of the mortuary, 120 W. 13th St., Lawrence, KS 66044.
Online condolences may be sent at warrenmcelwain.com.