R. M. R. Hall
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Richard Michael Ryan Hall (informally called "Mike"), born in Portland, Oregon on July 28, 1927, was an American linguist who lived and worked in New York. He died of a heart attack following cancer surgery on November 11, 1996. At the time of his death, he was survived by his daughters, Margaret and Judith, his son John, and two grandchildren, Alexander and Elisabeth. His wife, Beatrice Lincoff Hall, a Professor of Linguistics at SUNY Stony Brook, passed away in 1982.
Professor Hall taught linguistics at CUNY Queens College from 1967 until the time of his death. The department chair, Robert Vago, noted that he was instrumental in founding its Department of Linguistics.
Hall served as a U.S. Army medical clerk in Germany near the end of World War II. He learned to speak German during his time served there, explaining that his "rich uncle [Sam] sent me on vacation to Stuttgart." Hall received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1953. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Bayreuth in Germany in 1976-77 and held teaching positions in Sudan and Venezuela. His areas of study and expertise (academically as well as professionally) included historical linguistics, Indo-European studies, theoretical and applied linguistics, and Nilotic etymology. In 1976, Mike and Beatrice Hall spent a year in Sudan collecting data on fourteen Nilotic languages. This was the groundwork for A Nilotic Etymological Dictionary, to which Hall devoted the next 20 years. At the time of his death, the dictionary contained over 1200 items, but had not yet been published.
In describing Hall's physical appearance, QC Quad staff writer Frank Siniscalchi wrote that Hall wore "a pair of bright red suspenders, assorted tattoos (including a huge one of his namesake, St. Michael), multiple piercings, and ever-changing facial hair...." which "would bring to mind a sort of bohemian Mark Twain; distinguished looking, yet somehow unconventional and extraordinary."
[edit] Publications
Hall, Beatrice L. and R. M. R. Hall 1980. "Nez Perce Vowel Harmony: An Africanist Explanation and some Theoretical Questions". In Issues in Vowel Harmony, Vago, Robert M. (ed.), 201 ff.
[edit] References
Siniscalchi, Frank. "Remembering Professor Hall: A student's tribute to a beloved professor." Pg. 3, QC Quad, published on the premises of CUNY Queens College, dated November 25, 1996.
