In Memoriam: F. Keith Hall

F. Keith Hall, a TAPPI member since 1966, president of the TAPPI Board of Directors from 1991-1992, and active in several TAPPI committees including TAPPI Futurists, Honors Committee, and Metropolitan Local Section Research Management Committee, passed away May 5, 2017. Keith also contributed to the TAPPI Foundation and Forests for Our Future. Overall, he served some 30 years with the North American pulp and paper industry, beginning at International Paper in 1966.

Born in Leeds, England, in 1930, Keith earned a first class B.S. honors degree from the University of Manchester and later a Ph.D from Leeds University. Between 1953 and 1955, he served as a second lieutenant in the British army. Afterwards he joined Courtaulds (Canada) in Cornwall, Ontario, as a research chemist, eventually becoming deputy plant manager.

In 1966 Keith moved his family to the U.S., first residing for five years in West Norwalk, Conn., and for 32 years in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Employed by International Paper as director of technical services, he was later asked to run the newly opened Corporate Research Center in Sterling Forest and advanced to the position of chief scientist and director of research for IP until retiring in 1995.

While serving on the board of TAPPI, Keith was awarded TAPPI’s Distinguished Service Award. Other industry activities included the Research Advisory Committee of the Institute of Paper Chemistry, treasurer of ESPRA, trustee of the Textile Research Institute, and the Wallenberg Committee.

Fly fishing was Keith’s passion, traveling all over the world in pursuit of trophy fish from Alaska, Iceland, and Russia to Tierra del Fuego. He caught a 12.5 lb. sockeye salmon (half pound under the world record) a 22 lb. brown trout in Argentina, and a 64 lb. chinook salmon in the Kenai River in Alaska. From Tuxedo Lake, he bagged two brown trout, one week apart, each weighing more than 15 lb. Both were proudly displayed on his den wall.

Keith enjoyed tennis. He played on his varsity team and continued to play for many years at the Tuxedo Club. Scrabble was another game he enjoyed. Loving hybrid rhododendrons, he planted scores on his property hill down to Tuxedo Lake. Unfortunately, a deer also fancied them, but ignored hundreds of daffodils he had also planted. All of his life he was a bird watcher, the highlight of which was good sightings of the splendid quetzal in Costa Rica.

Married for more than 60 years to Patricia Ellison, they have three children: Simon, Stephanie, and Andrew, plus six grandchildren—Jenna, Emily, Erica, Nicolas, Aidan, and Ella.