Story 2 - Dr. William E. Hall

NHRI Leadership Mentoring was inspired by the early teachings and experiences of Dr. William E. Hall. His life and work stand as a testament to the transformative power of education, mentorship, and the belief in every individual’s potential. As a teacher, researcher, and mentor, Dr. Hall’s career was defined by his relentless curiosity about what humans can become. Dr. Hall was a kind, generous man, with a warm sense of humor. He was a person of integrity and strong principles, most notably a belief that each person has value and should be treated with fairness and respect. He not only applied these values to his own life, but passed them on to his family and to those with whom he worked.

Early Life and Education

William E. Hall was born on August 19, 1907 in MacGregor, Iowa. One of six children, Bill was the son of Vernon E. and Kate Simonds Hall. His father was a Methodist minister, serving in Iowa, Montana, Idaho, and Oregon. In the early 20th century, Methodist preachers and their families moved frequently and widely. Consequently, Bill and his siblings were educated and grew to maturity in a number of communities.

In 1929, Bill met Susan Chadwick, at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. They were married on September 17, 1930, and together they embarked on a shared journey of education and service. They were married for sixty-seven and a half years and raised four children - Vernon Hall, Dorothy (Hall) Schafer, John Hall, and Louise (Hall) Rasmussen.

While at Willamette, Bill and Susan rented an abandoned sorority house and with support from the University founded The International House. It was an experiment in community living where students from many different countries (Japan, China, The Philippines, Russia, United States) lived together, shared expenses, established meaningful relationships, exchanged points of view, and gained respect for each other. It was here Bill started to realize the importance of building good human relationships to gain insight and influence behavior.

Upon graduation from Willamette, Bill attended Eastern Oregon Normal School and received an elementary school teaching certificate. He taught one year in a rural school district, Pleasant Valley, Oregon. The next year he became the principal and teacher in the Eagle Valley School District where he taught for five years. He taught students at every grade level including some 8th grade boys who had failed the exit exam several times.

Bill directed a lot of time and energy to these particular students in the hope that he could help them succeed and move on. At the same time, he took special note of a second grade girl named Frieda, who was constantly answering questions that were directed to the eighth graders. He also noted that she usually answered correctly, even in the case of Algebra, a subject she had not yet been taught. As a teacher, Bill was frustrated that he was not able to spend more time with Frieda nor could he provide the enrichment and opportunities for her to reach her full potential. Most of his time was necessarily spent with more needy students.

Bill went to the University of Oregon during the summer. While there, he wrote a paper for Professor Dean Jewell in which he explained his interest in learning more about talented students. Professor Jewell advised Bill that there were two universities that were studying talented people and they were Columbia University and Ohio State University.

At the end of the summer session, Bill and Susan returned to the little school at Eagle Valley for another year, determined to save enough money for Bill to attend Ohio State. During that year, they successfully spearheaded a drive to raise funds for the town of Richland’s first library, a non-existent resource prior to their efforts. 

While at Richland in Eagle Valley, Bill had two outstanding students, Hilda and Sarah Beth. Not only did they excel academically, but got along well with the other students. Bill asked Hilda and Sarah Beth if they would be willing to tutor the eighth-grade boys who had been failing. After building a positive relationship with these eight grade students and much hard work these young men were able to pass the end-of-the-year exams and were promoted to high school This success reinforced Bill’s assumption that building a good relationship and investing time and energy in that relationship could have positive results.

The Path to Ohio State University

On the advice of Dean Jewell, Bill and Susan and their two small children traveled to Columbus, Ohio where Bill attended Summer School at Ohio State University to work on a Master’s Degree in Educational Psychology. In June of 1940, he completed his Master’s Degree under the supervision of Dr. Frank Robinson. His Thesis was entitled, THE ROLE OF READING IN A RURAL COMMUNITY. He and Susan decided it would be worth the effort to continue his research at Ohio State to obtain a PhD. Since his research for his PhD Degree could be conducted during summer sessions at Ohio State and continued off campus during the school year, he was able to continue his PhD studies while taking a college teaching position at Eastern College of Education in Cheney, Washington. He started as an instructor in educational psychology in 1941 and in 1943 he became the Director of Research in Psychology.

Dr. Pressey, a professor at Ohio State who was also interested in the study of successful people, suggested to Bill to design a study to try to find out why, in a given group of talented students, certain students excelled to a high degree and others did not. He searched the records and selected the most academically successful student, a student in International Finance and interviewed him to find out his methodology. Among his strategies were he became acquainted with the field of study beyond the classroom, he scheduled his time wisely, and he studied the individual professor’s point of view and method of teaching. Bill realized that if you wanted to discover why people were successful in a particular field, you should study people who were successful in that field. This planted the seed for much of his future study.

The University of Nebraska

Dr. Hall became intrigued with how people used their talent, developed their potential and realized their full potential. Much of the research in psychology at the time was focused on the diagnosis and treatment of people suffering mental health problems and very little was known about the psychology of success. These early studies under the guidance of the few professors who were interested in studying successful people resulted in Dr. Hall receiving his his PhD in 1943. He joined the faculty at the University of Nebraska in September of 1945 as a professor of Educational Psychology and Measurements hoping to expand his study of outstanding people.

In Dr. Hall’s first years at the University of Nebraska he taught educational psychology to students planning on going into education and to teachers in towns across Nebraska working on their education degrees or updating the teaching certificates. He was interested in studying successful teachers and worked with them as he tried out the principles of what he would later call The Positive Approach. He suggested to teachers with classroom behavior problems to recognize good behavior when it occurred and to ignore bad behavior whenever possible. Teachers who tried this reported surprising success.

1945

He expanded this interest in successful people by identifying campus leaders and expanding this study into what became know as The Project. With the endorsement of Dean Henzlik, Dean of the Teachers College and with the financial support of Lincoln businessmen, James Stuart, J. Lee Rankin and Jerry Brownfield a research project was born. Two basic principles supported the philosophy of the Project and later the Foundation.

1. The greatest resource available to us is human resource

2. The best way to develop human resource is by building positive human relationships

Dr. Hall started by selecting outstanding students in his classes (called “counselors”) and equally outstanding students in local high schools (called “counselees” or “junior counselors”). He matched them in one-to-one relationships, with the idea of studying their progress. In this way, Dr. Hall continued to see that the best way to help people grow and to build on their strengths is to be involved in positive relationships with successful people who are willing and capable of investing in others. 

Twenty-four college students were selected as Counselors to 12 high school students as recommended by teachers. In the first years, a senior and an underclass university student were paired with a high school student. The college and high school students met once a week on the University campus where they studied and experimented with the three principles of The Positive Approach which were:

1. Study successful people

2. Give recognition for good behavior when it occurs.

3. Invest in other people by helping them develop their potential

They met in smaller groups during the week to solve community problems and develop their human relation skills. The first projects were; 1. helping underprivileged families, 2. visiting patients at Orthopedic Hospital, 3. solving problems at their high school, and 4. mentoring young children.

Dr. Hall was joined in his research by graduate students, Don Clifton, Jack Campbell, Paul Barlow, Don Fenwick, David Knapp and George Uhlig to name a few. Don Clifton continued to work with Dr. Hall after he finished his PhD and co-founded the Nebraska Human Resources Research Foundation. Paul Barlow was instrumental in the design of Project and led many of the activities. He went on to be a professor at Texas A&M Kingsville. George Uhlig did some of the earliest research and served as Dean of Education Department at University of South Alabama for 40 years. Gay Dodge became the Director of the Foundation from 1965-1992. According to Dr. Hall’s daughter, Dorothy:

Project members went on to spread the principles of the Positive Approach becoming teachers, professors, mentors, parents, engineers, scientists, elected officials, and community leaders, creating scholarships, mentoring programs, tutoring centers and after school programs using their human relations skills they had learned at the University of Nebraska in “The Project.”

In 1951, the Journal of Educational Research, published Dr. Hall’s work, which became known as the “Positive Approach.” In 1959, Dr. Hall was awarded the medal for Distinguished Teaching by UNL. One of his nominations said,

In 1960, Dr. Clifford Hardin, Chancellor of the University of Nebraska, became aware of Hall and Clifton’s new interview structure that they used to select successful people. At the time, Hardin was also serving on the board of the Bankers Life of Nebraska, a life insurance agency. Hardin asked Hall and Clifton to expand their research to include the insurance industry. 

During this time, Hall and Clifton continued to administer the programs of the NHRRF. Dr. Hall’s children Vernon Hall, Dorothy (Hall) Schafer, John Hall, and Louise (Hall) Rasmussen were all involved in NHRRF. Eventually, Hall and Clifton saw the possibility of applying their theories to a business setting, so they left the University. Together, the two men created Selection Research, Inc. in l969 Later, In 1974, at the age of 67, Dr. Hall and his wife, Susan went on to establish Hall Research Institute. Two years later, they moved their company to Atlanta, Georgia.

Then, in 1989 Dr. Hall and Susan were approached by Kimberly and Doug Rath, former employees of SRI, to create a new company, Talent Plus. Both Kimberly and Doug had been members of the Nebraska Human Resources Research Foundation at the University of Nebraska. They continued to work with Talent Plus until their retirement.

Dr. Hall never lost his enthusiasm for life and his desire to make a positive change. His ideas, his energy, his desire to solve problems and make life better for all were contagious and influenced his family, his students, his fellow professors, and all the people with whom he interacted.

There Are Things I Will Remember About My Father

Written by John Charles Hall, son of Dr. Hall

There are things I will remember about my father,

and carry with me forever

and give to my children

so they can give them to their children

and so on for generations to come.

A loud laugh on a Sunday morning

and a constant word of encouragement

and always a hope for things to be better tomorrow

A bold plan on a New Year’s Day.

and making secret designs on how to be a success

and listening to someone’s dreams

and telling of his dreams.

A sense of humor on a moment’s notice,

and always telling a joke

and always telling a story

and alway giving a saying to live by.

A master plan for helping others on a sultry evening at the dinner table,

and giving advice on saving the world

and discussing the politics of the nation

and seeing through the foibles of the generations.

A lover of students at a place of learning,

and being loved by his students

and admired by all who head him lecture

and giving plans to save our country by guiding it’s youth.

His enthusiasm for a theory he had discovered himself or found in his reading was truly infectious.

As infectious as his glee over a humorous tidbit.

The enthusiasm so overwhelming you had to believe in his theory and you certainly had to revel in his humorous morsel along with him.

He thought everyone had potential

And that they could live up to their potential

And by so doing could contribute to aa better society for all

He taught Sunday School

He taught teachers

He taught businessmen

He taught college students

He taught his children.

H taught me to like gardening.

He taught me to like reading and writing

He taught me to like sports

He taught me to like helping others

He taught me to love my wife and children

He taught me to put their interests as high priority

He taught me to work hard, try hard and study hard

He taught me to laugh a lot

He taught me to never be satisfied with what I had done but always attempt to do more

He taught me to try try to do your best when you didn’t feel your best or things were not as good as they could be

He taught me all this as he did them himself.

A talker for the ages on any day of the year

And talking about his children and his wife

And talking about people he had met

And talking about making life better

A person who never gave up on things improving

And knowing he could make himself healthy

And know he could make his family better

And knowing he could make his marriage more fulfilled

He said you find good by studying good

Studying good people

Studying good families

Studying good ideas

He drove a Plymouth with a hole in the floorboard whose clutch never did work when he was a professor

He chopped a cord of wood for half a pair of shoes during the Depression

He shoveled snow from driveways in a driving snowstorm, when his son had promised too many people they would have clean driveways.

He said do not condemn what evil people do but don’t condone it.

And praise all the good even the worst of us occasionally accomplish

He said all of those who succeed have someone who taught by example

And then he became the example to many.

If ideas can save us,

My father has saved us all

If always trying to find the right thing to do lifts us up,

My father has raised us all high in the air.

If having a person for just one day of discussion can make you a better person,

Then my father made better people by the score.

If finding out what makes someone good and strong makes you a better person,

Then my father made many people far better than they would have been without him.

He made you feel save from a Nebraska tornado

He made you feel smarter than you knew you were

He gave you confidence to think you could do anything

He made you accomplish more than you ever imagined you could.

He held onto life for all it was worth

And built dreams for people to live for.

Thanks Dad for all those you have touched

God speed

We all love you and appreciate you for being there to share our lives and make them richer.

There are things I will remember about my father

And carry with me forever

And give to my children

So they can give them to their children

And so on for generations to come

Lincoln Citizenship Project 1954-1955

Talent Plus/William E. Hall Distinguished Alumni Award Story

Hall Ways to Success and Significance book by Jim Meehan