Virgil K. Hall

Virgil and Nancy Hall loved to hold hands. They held hands at the powwow grounds; they held hands walking to a ballpark. They held them when they sat next to each other at the doctor’s office and when they fell asleep in the car on a road trip. On Monday evening, May 3, 2021, Virgil held Nancy’s hand; he held his son Mike’s hand, and a few minutes later he passed away. Virgil met Nancy Smith in early 1963. He worked for Mountain States Telephone installing telephones in Glacier National Park’s new administration building and maintaining phone lines around the park. She worked at the reception and information desk answering tourists’ questions about the park. They got along immediately. He would call her often when he had to “test” the new phones in buildings and homes. In June, they had their first date. That evening as they sat next to Lake McDonald, he told her that someday he was going to build her a two-car garage. Three months later, on September 7th, 1963, they got married. After moving to Great Falls, two sons, Rich and Mike followed, and their new Hall family was begun. Virgil was born in Helena in 1931, one of seven siblings. He had polio as a child, but after recovering, he did not let it slow him down. Showing initiative and drive, he got his first job at around age nine or ten selling newspapers on street corners and in local businesses after school in downtown Helena. He would continue to show a great work ethic through high school setting pins at a local bowling alley, cutting butter at a creamery, and working at his cousin’s farm one summer. He graduated from Helena High School in 1949 and left for the Navy ten days later. In the Navy, or Uncle Sam’s Canoe Club as he affectionately called it, Virgil was stationed in San Diego and worked as an aircrew member on JD-1 and TBM aircraft that towed targets for aircraft and ships that were training to go to Korea. He spent almost four years in the Navy and after he was discharged, his experience as a radio and radar operator helped him get a job with Mountain States Telephone, later Mountain Bell. He worked for the phone company for 38 years, the last 30 in Great Falls. Virgil and Nancy’s home in Great Falls was full of love and fun. The family read books, played cards, board games, skated, and fed ducks at Gibson Park. Virgil taught his sons how to play tennis and to bowl. He put up a basketball hoop and would often play with them. Later, he and Rich would go on long bicycle rides around Montana, going to Helena and riding to Glacier Park and then over the Going to the Sun Road. Virgil enjoyed nothing more than spending time with his family, and the enjoyment increased in the nineties when his son, Rich, and daughter-in-law, Sue, had three kids (Isaac, Emily, and Ben) and made Virgil and Nancy grandparents. He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Nancy; his sons, Rich (Sue) of Duluth, Minnesota, and Mike of Great Falls; sister, Ruthie (Jim) Armstrong of Sequim, Washington; sister-in-law, Velma Hall of Portland, Oregon; and grandchildren, Isaac of Spring, Texas; Emily of Kalispell; and Ben of Springdale, Arkansas. He was preceded in death by his parents, Isaac and Ruth Hall; his in-laws, Richard and Marjorie Smith; siblings, Katherine Rowlette, Robert, Dorothy (Bob) Brock, Betty (Don) Poor, and Dick. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Benefis Peace Hospice, the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, the Glacier Park Foundation, the University of Wisconsin Foundation Legal Education Opportunities Enrichment Fund, or a charity of your choice. Instead of a traditional service, family and friends will gather this summer to celebrate his life. Wherever he is now, Virgil is with his parents, in-laws, family, and friends. They are laughing and having a good time, and Virgil is smiling and looking at Nancy and the double garage we built in 1979 that he promised he would build for her on their first date.