Richard “Dick” W. Hall passed away on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, in Aberdeen, Washington.
He was born in the original St. Joseph Hospital in Aberdeen, on Sept. 30, 1929, to Helen and William Hall. He attended Aberdeen schools, graduating from Aberdeen High School with the class of 1947. He married Beverly E. Strong in 1956. They were married for 58 years and had three children. He was preceded in death by his beautiful bride in 2013, his daughter in 1979; and his mother and father in 1975.
He served in the U.S. Navy during the Japanese Occupation and the Korean Service and was honorably discharged in March of 1952. He then lived in Long Beach, California and worked as a machinist for Hamer Oil and Tool until later returning to Aberdeen and joined Lamb Grays Harbor Company as a machinist.
While working days, he attended night school with I.C.S. and majored in engineering. He worked for Lambs for 22 years in field service and sales, traveling throughout the U.S., Canada, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany. In 1975 he joined Quality Industries of America and formed Hall Manufacturing Inc. which provided machinery and equipment to the paper industry for 40 years.
Richard was a life member of the Aberdeen Elks Lodge, a life member of the VFW and the American Legion.
Richard is survived by his two children Rick A. Hall of Olympia, Washington and Amber J. Monroe of Lacey, Washington. His favorite hobby was fishing, gardening, and watching the Seahawks “Go Hawks.”
Richard’s Big Fish Story
Richard fished the Hoh River for more than 40 years, from the very top to the mouth. His two fishing pals gave him the name of the Hoh River; he hooked and lost many large spring king salmon, called springers.
He always fished with light gear, usually 12-pound test line and a 9-foot rod.
The springer spawn was landed after an hour and five-minute battle in early June 1991 and weighed in at 46.7 lbs. \On that June day Richard and his two pals drove up the river to get the boat trailer and left Richard to clean the five salmon they had caught. One salmon had a small skein of eggs, so Richard cast a bait of eggs across the river to the deep hole. Soon as the bait hit the water, a huge springer was hooked and headed upriver, Richard couldn’t hold it back and gave it a free spool — lucky he had over 200 yards of line. Finally, the line went slack, and all of the slack line was reeled back, and the big fish came back to the deep hole. That springer stayed in that big hole and was fighting for a total of an hour and five minutes.
When his pals got back with the trailer, they said “Richard you’re snagged in the middle of the river,” thinking he was trying to make them believe that he had a big fish on. Richard pulled the reel hard and the fish came out of the water about four feet, and Dan, who was 83 years old, got so excited that he started to push the boat back into the water and fell in over his head. After the springer was landed Dan took this photo.
A very large net was used, and the fish was too big. Finally the fish was so tired out that he was led into the net. Everyone thought it was a record fish caught on lightweight gear. The fish was iced down and later weighed at Swanson’s in Hoquiam, Washington.
