Tony P. Hall

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Tony Hall

Tony Patrick Hall (born 16 January 1942, in Dayton, Ohio) is an American politician who served as a Democrat from Ohio in the U.S. House of Representatives for more than 20 years, then as ambassador and chief of the U.S. mission to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Agencies in Rome. Most recently he is author, with Tom Price, of Changing the Face of Hunger: One Man's Story of How Liberals, Conservatives, Democrats, Republicans, and People of Faith Are Joining Forces to Help the Hungry, the Poor, and the Oppressed (W Publishing Group, 2006).

Hall was graduated from Fairmont High School in Kettering, Ohio in 1960. He received an artium baccalaureus degree from Denison University (Granville, Ohio) in 1964. While in college, Hall was named Little All-American football tailback and the Ohio Conference's Most Valuable Player (1963).

Hall served as Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand teaching English in 1966-1967. After working as a real estate agent, Hall served as an Ohio state representative from 1969 to 1973 and as an Ohio state senator from 1973 to 1979. In 1974, Hall ran for Ohio secretary of state and lost to Republican incumbent Ted W. Brown.

Hall was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978, and began serving in 1979 (96th Congress). Hall succeeded U.S. Rep. Charles W. Whalen, Jr., a moderate Republican, as representative of the overwhelmingly Democratic third district. In the 1980s, Hall became a born-again Christian and changed his position on abortion from pro-choice to pro-life. Hall served in Congress for 24 years, longer than any previous U.S. representative representing Dayton's district.

He served in the House into 2002, when he accepted President George W. Bush's nomination to succeed George McGovern as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Agencies for Food and Agriculture. Hall's confirmation to the U.N. post, however, was held up until September 2002, making it difficult for his Democratic substitute in the House race, Rick Carne, to build up much name recognition before the November election. As a result, former Dayton Mayor Mike Turner, a Republican who had recently lost reelection to the mayoralty, was elected to take Hall's place.

During his tenure in Congress, Hall's primary focus was addressing hunger around the world. He made frequent trips to more than 100 countries such as Sierra Leone where hunger was widespread. He was chairman of the Select Committee on Hunger from 1989 to 1993. When the committee was abolished, Hall fasted for 22 days in protest. He was founder of the Congressional Friends of Human Rights Monitors and the Congressional Hunger Center. Hall served terms on the foreign affairs and small business committees before being appointed to the House Rules Committee in 1981.

Twice during his tenure as U.S. representative, Hall introduced legislation that would have apologized for slavery.

Hall was an Ohio delegate to the 2000 Democratic National Convention.

Hall's father, Dave Hall was a Republican mayor of Dayton, Ohio. Hall's son Matt died in 1996 at age 15 of leukemia. Hall's brother Sam was a state legislator. Hall and his wife, Janet Sue Dick, were married in 1973.

Preceded by Charles W. Whalen, Jr.	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 3rd District 1979 - 2003	Succeeded by Mike Turner