- Date Of Birth: June 20, 1927
- Date Of Death: January 16, 2018
- State: Maryland
Wiley Albanus Hall, Jr. was born on June 20, 1927, the middle child of Wiley and Laura Kydd Hall. He died on January 16, 2018. He was predeceased by his parents, his two sisters Winona Hall Gilliam and Grace Valentine Hall Charity and his youngest son Ralph Gregory.
He was educated in the Richmond Public School System and graduated from Armstrong High School in 1944. Wiley Sr. was executive director of the Richmond Urban League which was fighting to introduce African Americans into the region’s labor force. He often used his teenaged son to help break those barriers.
Wiley Jr. matriculated at Virginia Union University in Richmond with a major in Mathematics. He volunteered for the Army Air Corps in 1946 and was discharged in 1947 at the end of World War II. He returned to Virginia Union to finish his education and graduated in 1949 with a bachelor’s degree in math.
After a brief teaching career, he entered government service in 1950 and served with distinction in the National Bureau of Standards’ National Voluntary Lab Accreditation Program, specializing in areas such as consumer technology and thermal insulation. He received recognition for his contributions to aerospace vehicle illumination and was the bureau’s equal employment opportunity officer when he retired in 1987.
He married the late Mildred Catherine Whitehead on February 3, 1951. The couple maintained a strong, devoted, family-centered partnership and bond for more than half a century. When his wife and then his youngest son began to succumb to the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease, he stepped in as primary caretaker, exhibiting the commitment, patience and loving care that defined his entire life.
He enjoyed bowling, Bid Whist, double-deck pinochle, Scrabble, and crossword puzzles and he dutifully supported his wife’s lifelong devotion to gardening. He reportedly was a master of the Twist. He was a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. He will be remembered as an exemplary role model, a gentle, good humored man of great dignity who was as devoted to his in-law’s extended family as to his own.
He is survived by his sons Wiley 3rd, James Michael and Donald Erwin; his daughter-in-law Rene Branison; his grandchildren Wiley 4th and James Alexander; James Michael, Nicholas, Martin and Malcolm and Joseph and Alexander; his step grandchild Lashieryra Parker and his great grandson Wiley 5th and a wide and devoted extended family. .
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