David Hall

Hal David Hall, age 82, of Montclair, NJ, passed away December 31, 2025.

Excellent journalism was the cornerstone of David Hall’s life. He began his long and distinguished career as a reporter for the Nashville Tennessean, Chicago Daily News, and the Chicago Sun Times, and went on to serve as the editor of the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch, Denver Post, Bergen Record and Plain Dealer in Cleveland. During his time leading the Denver Post, the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service for a seven-months long series debunking the widely held belief that thousands of children went missing in the United States every year.

Achieving intellectual honesty was a defining goal of David’s career. Although he spent his career in print journalism, he didn’t scoff at online news sources, maintaining that good journalism could be practiced in many forms.

David died after a brief illness while on a family vacation. He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Suzanne Lovell Hall, formerly of Columbia, TN; his children Carson (Laura), Matthew (Kristy), and Amanda Goldman (Jeremy); and grandchildren Dylan and Nicolas Hall, of Portland, OR, Frances Hall and Julia, Caroline and Max Goldman, of Montclair, NJ. Also surviving are brothers Gary Hall, Maryville, TN, Randy Hall, Lebanon, TN, and Les Carson, Greensboro, GA.

He was born on March 7, 1943, to Mildred Durham Hall and Hal Turner Hall in Lebanon, TN. Before David entered high school, a teacher him to apply to Castle Heights Military Academy, located in his home town. He was accepted, and on the first-day school tour became fascinated by the school newspaper. He joined the staff and set the trajectory for the rest of his life. David thrived in the atmosphere of military exactness and demanding academics.

During summers as a high schooler, David subscribed to The Washington Post. He would spread the paper out on a table, study the stories and draw alternate front page layouts. On the day following his high school graduation he began working for The Nashville Tennessean, a job he resumed every summer during his college years. During one of those summers he was part of an investigative team that went door to door in Nashville’s 2nd ward uncovering evidence of voter fraud which led to an election being overturned. As a 19-year-old reporter he was sent by the Tennessean to join a press pool that flew to Texas to interview President Johnson shortly after his retirement.

At the University of Tennessee, he earned a BS in journalism and MA in economics, while editing the school newspaper in both junior and senior years. During his editorship the paper went from a weekly to daily publication. He twice earned college journalism awards from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation with presentations given by President Lyndon Johnson in the White House Rose Garden. He was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, making lifelong friendships, a member of the Scarabbean Society and was named a Torchbearer, the University’s highest award for leadership and service.

He served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Vietnam, where he worked on a military publication.

In his retirement he developed a passion for jazz and English football (soccer). He had a collection of football jerseys and would wear the one appropriate to the game at hand. Wearing his red ManU cap, he often would attract strangers who would stop him for a quick word of delight or commiseration over the team’s latest outing. He relished these encounters.

He listened to jazz on radio stations from around the country, not just to hear the music, but to learn from the commentaries about the artists and their histories.

A graveside service will be held later this year. Arrangements will be made by Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home in Columbia, TN.

The family asks that memorial contributions be made in David’s name to The Poynter Institute.