Introducing:Richard B. Hall was born in Detroit in 1937 and spent his youth in the town of Birmingham just north of Detroit. His parents are also from Michigan. He has lived in southeastern Michigan all his life with the exception of eight years of military service. His wife Barbara is also a Michiganian.
Dick's first recollection of an interest in space science, and the pursuit of a technical career, began in 1950 at the age of thirteen. He went to see a Saturday afternoon movie titled "Destination Moon." That was one of the first Sci-Fi movies of its day, and Hall was impressed. He recalls thinking about that movie all day. Later that evening, in a blinding flash of insight, Richard Hall knew what he wanted to do with his life. He wanted to be one of those engineers in white lab coats, working on the first rocket to the moon. Electronics became his passion. He also took an active interest Amateur Radio and studied all he could on both subjects. In 1956, following high school graduation, Hall enlisted in the Air Force with the promise of attending electronics school. He was accepted and trained as a Ground Electronics Countermeasures specialist and sent to Germany.
Hoping to make the Air Force a career, following his return to United States in 1961, Dick was retrained as an airborne data link and communications specialist. His duties included shop maintenance and repair of the electronic equipment, as well as in-flight electronic maintenance aboard the EC-121-H radar picket aircraft operating off the East Coast.
Hall's Air Force career came to end in 1965. He accepted a position as test engineer at the Bendix Research Laboratories in Southfield, Michigan, and began work in an exciting new field called Laser Optics. At Bendix, Hall had the privilege of working on two NASA projects that went to moon aboard the Mariner Lunar Lander and the first Apollo mission that landed on the moon. It wasn't the first rocket to the moon, but close enough.
In 1973 Dick joined the Physics department at the General Motors Research Laboratories located at General Motors tech center in Warren MI. His work there included Suffice Science, electronics design, Laser Combustion diagnostics and development of an advanced ultra-short-pulsed igniter. Following an exciting and challenging 35-year career in research, he retired in August of 1999.
Dick Hall's retirement plans include devoting time to setting up a Project Argus station, some radio astronomy projects, amateur radio satellite work (callsign KF8ST), and, of course, his duties as volunteer Regional Coordinator for The SETI League, Inc.
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