Col. Donald F. Hall, 92, of Feather Drive, Deltona, Fl., a three-war veteran with thirty-five years of military service, died at Deltona Health Care Center, May 1,1987. He and Mrs. Hall had resided in the Winter Park area since his retirement in 1954, moving to Deltona in September 1979.
Born in Fargo, N.D., where he had his schooling through college, Hall was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1917 at Fort Snelling, Minn. His service in World War I included training duties at Camp Dodge, Iowa, and two years as a battalion adjutant in France. He also graduated from a special course at the Sorbonne University in Paris before returning to the States.
Between WWI and WWII, he was active in the Indiana National Guard, and entered active duty in December 1940. After a year at Camp Shelby, Miss. training cadres, he was assigned to the Pentagon for special intelligence service with the Army Air Force. In 1942 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and sent on a secret mission to London, where he headed the newly formed Psychological Warfare Branch, which moved with the invasion of North Africa; He was later named American Military Director of Psychological Warfare for North Africa and Italy.
Upon return to the States he was assigned as chief of ~ in the Army Ground Forces and served for six years there, until he was called to Korea by General Mark Clark, to head up the psywar activities of the United Nations command against the North Korean and Chinese forces. He returned in 1954 and was assigned to General Staff duties in the Pentagon. He was retired for disability in 1954.
Colonel Hall, in the periods between his wartime duties, had served as a YMCA secretary, and later as a newspaper reporter/photographer in Kokomo, Indiana. After retirement, Col. and Mrs. Hall moved to Winter Park, residing for ten years at 1920 Wood-crest Drive until their move to Deltona. Prior to his long disability he had been a Mason, a charter member of the American Legion (having attended the Paris caucus at the founding), and a long-time member of the Orlando-Winter Park Camera Club. At the time of his death he was a member of the Winter Park University Club, the Central Florida and National Retired Officers Association, and the Winter Park Presbyterian Church. He held a fifty-years' membership in the Kokomo: Kiwanis Club, and was a member of the Kiwanis International Legion of Honor.
Colonel Hall was also an active photographer-artist, and more than a hundred of his oils hang in homes in the Central Florida area.
The Colonel received for his wartime services the American Legion of Merit, with oak-leaf cluster, the medal of the Order of the British Empire, the title of a Knight of the Crown of Italy, the Distinguished Service Ulchee Medal of South Korea, a Presidential Citation from Singman Rhee, eight campaign medals with five battle stars, and a United Nations service medal.
Decendents include his three sons: James R., Deltona; Donald F., Jr., Atlanta, Ga.; and Robert W., Houston, Texas; eight grandchildren; thirteen great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandson.
Stephen R. Baldauff Funeral Home of Deltona is in charge of arrangements. Lived in Lisbon City, Ramson Co., North Dakota in 1920.
