Larry Cully Hall, a retired chemistry professor who taught thousands of Vanderbilt students and directed training programs for high school and college teachers and others with responsibility for hazardous materials, died at his home in Charleston, South Carolina, on Aug. 15.
Hall, 92, was born and raised in the Akron, Ohio, area. He completed his undergraduate education at Bowling Green State University and earned a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1956. That same year he joined Vanderbilt, where his areas of expertise included analytical chemistry, corrosion and electrochemistry, with cross-disciplinary interests in materials science and chemical engineering.
Hall was the principal or co-principal investigator on projects funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense and Environmental Protection Agency, among others. He helped develop a classification system for materials that enabled EPA field officers to recognize more easily chemical reactivity and potential dangers of accidental releases.
Hall taught advanced analytical chemistry and metallurgy until the latter was moved to the School of Engineering in 1964. He then became increasingly involved in the general chemistry program and served as supervisor of the beginning labs.
“Larry was a favorite chemistry professor for many Vanderbilt students,” said Michael P. Stone, professor of chemistry. “I’m sure those who took his analytical chemistry course still remember their lab experience.”
Among Hall’s many students was Will Perdue, BA’88, former NBA champion and Vanderbilt Athletics Hall of Fame inductee. In a 1988 interview with Jim Laise of the Nashville Banner, Perdue said Hall taught him an early and important lesson when Perdue did poorly on a chemistry exam. Perdue thought Hall “might ‘help’ me out or let me work some of the problems again. But no, he said, ‘You’d better get yourself a tutor and catch up.’” Perdue said Hall helped him realize that he was going to have to do the work to achieve his goals.
Hall was a lifelong athlete, setting many longstanding school records in track, followed by mastery of croquet, golf, biking, softball and more running. He introduced and coached cross-country running at Vanderbilt.
Joel Tellinghuisen, professor of chemistry, emeritus, was Hall’s office “neighbor” for nearly 20 years. “Larry and I talked every day, often celebrating or commiserating over the joys as well as the frustrations of teaching large lecture sections of general chemistry,” Tellinghuisen said. He also has pleasant memories of when they sang tenor in the Belmont United Methodist Church choir.
In the Nashville community, Hall served as director of the Middle Tennessee Science and Engineering Fair for seven years and brought the International Science and Engineering Fair to Nashville in 1992. In addition, he was an accomplished “life master” bridge player.
Hall’s survivors include his wife, Bernadine (Bunny) Hall, and three children: Mark, Kaye and David, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
A visitation for Hall’s family and friends will be at Harpeth Hills Funeral Home in Nashville on Saturday, Aug. 27, beginning at 9:30 a.m. The service will follow at 11:30 a.m.