Robert W. Hall

Robert W. Hall, 87, of Concord Township, a real estate appraiser for 54 years, a self-taught landscape and marine artist, and a World War II veteran, died Wednesday, November 2, at home.
Mr. Hall was born in Philadelphia in 1924, a descendant of John Key, the first male child born in William Penn's Colony. Mr. Hall graduated from Lower Merion High School in 1942 and earned a bachelor's degree from Temple University in 1949 on the GI Bill. He served three years in the Army during World War II, including 18 months in Europe with the Army of the Liberation.
Mr. Hall was very well known in the field of industrial and commercial real estate appraisal and counseling. He was a past president of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers, a past president of the Delaware County Board of Realtors, a Member of the Society of Real Estate Counselors, a Member of the Appraisal Institute, a Member of the Governing Council of the Appraisal Institute, and a member of the Faculty of the Appraisal Institute, for which he taught many courses at universities and colleges across the country. His book Real Estate Investment Analysis—How to Spot the TOP PERFORMERS for HIGH RETURN Real Estate Investing was published in 1982. He is listed in the 1976 edition of Who's Who in Real Estate and Finance, and in the 1980 edition of Who's Who in the World. His interest in the history of southeastern Pennsylvania led to the research and publication of two articles in the July 1976 (Bicentennial) issue of The Appraisal Journal, entitled "Philadelphia's First Appraisal—America's First?" and "Penn's 'Greene Countrie Towne.'"
A 49-year resident of Concord Township, Mr. Hall was a charter member of the Concord Township Historical Society, and was instrumental in the re-publication by the Historical Society of Ashmead's History of Delaware County.
Mr. Hall was a Charter Member of Concord Liberty Presbyterian Church, and first became a Presiding Elder of the Presbyterian Church in 1952.
Mr. Hall's family describes him as someone who never stopped seeking to grow and to learn. During the course of his life, he pursued many, and varied, hobbies. For one, he was an avid gardener and a nurseryman. For over 40 years, Bob and his family operated Smallbrook Farm Evergreen Nursery, a cut-your-own Christmas tree business, especially enjoyed by the grandchildren, who every December felt as though Grandma and Grandpa's house was Santa's workshop at the North Pole. When his children were growing up, the hobbies Bob shared with them included traveling, sailing on the Chesapeake Bay, horseback riding, hunting, and fishing, particularly surf fishing on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in recent years. Twenty years ago, along with his wife, Claire, Bob took up crosscountry skiing and bicycle trail riding. These hobbies were only recently replaced by the slightly less active ones of cooking, a passion of Bob's of the last several years, when he made many meals for himself and Claire, as well as for family celebrations, and watercolor painting, which he began in his early 70s, inspired by extensive travel in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and as an outgrowth of an old hobby of pencil sketching, and which became something of a second career.
Mr. Hall is survived by his wife of 65 years, Kathleen Clarice Hamilton Hall, his sons, Robert Hall, MD, of Hockessin, DE, and James Hall of Glen Mills, his daughter Kathleen Hall-Ditchfield of West Grove, and five grandchildren.
A private graveside service was held on November 5 at Faggs Manor Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Cochranville. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, November 12, at 2 pm, at Concord Liberty Presbyterian Church, with a time of visiting with the family beginning at 1 pm.
In lieu of flowers, friends are invited to send contributions to Concord Liberty Presbyterian Church, at 256 Bethel Road, Glen Mills, PA 19342, or to The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Foundation, Lockbox #1352, P.O. Box 8500, Philadelphia, PA 19178-1352.
Online condolences may be made by visiting www.griecocares.com
Arrangements by the Foulk & Grieco Funeral Home, West Grove, PA