Henry Lyon Hall, Jr (1931-2020)
HALL, Henry Lyon Jr. of Lexington Massachusetts, retired partner at national law firm Ropes & Gray LLP, and whose numerous works for cities and towns underscored his commitment to service, died peacefully at his home in Lexington, MA, on June 16th, 2020.
Born July 23, 1931 to Henry Lyon Hall and Edith Page Hall (née Blanchard), Henry and his sister Edith spent their earliest years in the town of Sandwich, MA, along with their parents, a housekeeper and a number of barn cats, including Sandy, a close friend and later a treasured memory.
Following high school graduation in a class of 14, he earned his BA at U Mass Amherst, followed by 3 years in the Army, studying Russian at the language school in Monterey, CA and serving as a translator and interpreter in the former West Germany. Following his discharge, he worked at the CIA in Washington, DC, where he met law school student Jean Elizabeth Haring, who inspired in him both an interest in law and a proposal of marriage. They wed in 1958.
He excelled at law, receiving his Juris Doctor with honors from George Washington University School of Law, where he graduated 4th in his class, and was a member of the George Washington Law Review, Phi Delta Phi Int'l Legal Honors Society, and the Order of the Coif.
The couple's first son, also Henry, was born in 1960, followed by George in 1962, shortly before he received his degree. A year later, they moved to Belmont, Massachusetts and he began a long career at Ropes & Gray.
Over a 35 year career, his passion for the law brought him from associate to full partner, specializing in municipal law and public finance, giving small Massachusetts towns the same thoughtful consideration he gave New York City as part of the legal team brought in to assist with its bankruptcy crisis of 1975.
Outside the office, he spent countless hours applying his expertise to local government, serving Belmont first as a Town Meeting member, later spending 17 years as Town Moderator, as well as chairing the Bylaw Review and Permanent Audit Committees.
He was particularly proud of his long association with the Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical High School in Lexington, a job tailor made for his skills, starting with the original Planning Committee and continuing over 12 years representing Belmont on the School Committee, which he chaired for the school's first four critical years.
He also played an integral role in crafting legislation to fund regional school districts, a key prerequisite that allowed regional vocational schools such as Minuteman to exist. In awarding him the 2010 David F. Cronin Award, the Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators noted that the law "has proven effective thanks to in large part to Henry's fingerprints on the legislation. Since then, no one has been able to amend Proposition 2 ½" – no small feat, as any Massachusetts pol or administrator would tell you.
He also served on the Board of Directors for the Massachusetts Moderators Association, becoming its President in 1998, and held membership in the Nat'l Association of Bond Lawyers, the American, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Boston Bar Associations, the Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation, Massachusetts Charitable Society and the Massachusetts Municipal Society.
Throughout his life and career, Henry's warmth, generosity, honesty and instinctive lack of pretension, combined with a sharp intellect that didn't require flash or amplification to make itself known, continually won him respect, loyalty and trust.
In later years, he and his wife Jean were fortunate to be able to indulge their love of travel, while their love of animals was expressed in numerous charitable donations and a long line of well-loved cats.
He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Jean (Haring) Hall, his sister Edith (Hall) Huck of Sandwich MA, his sons Henry L. Hall of Concord MA and George B. Hall of Gloucester MA and their families, and by numerous kindnesses and good works.
Donations in Henry's memory may be given to the Parkinson's Foundation, https://www.parkinson.org/