Dr. David Connolly Hall III died peacefully on August 12, 2024 at his home on Lopez Island. David was a loving husband, father, and grandfather; a wonderful friend; a healer; a writer; an athlete; and a passionately committed activist for peace. With his wife Anne, he followed his heart into demonstrations and war zones.
Born April 11, 1946 in Seattle, David graduated from Harvard in 1968 with a degree in American History and Literature. As a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, David was assigned—just as he and Anne Straffin were cementing their relationship—to alternative service at Western State Hospital in Washington State. His work with sex offenders there convinced him he “wanted to help guys before they got into trouble,” so, he and Anne having married, David entered the University of Washington, first for medical school prerequisites, then completing his M.D., residency and fellowship in child psychiatry.
In 1983, now the father of David IV and Jonathan, David began the psychiatry practice he continued for the next four decades, mostly in private practice in Seattle. When Anne’s career moved the couple north in 2011, David shifted his practice to Anacortes and joined Island Hospital Psychiatry and Behavioral Clinic, commuting from Lopez Island. In 2022, David retired from his practice at the hospital, pouring his wisdom into a revision of his book, Stop Arguing and Start Understanding: Nine Steps to Solving Family Conflicts (originally published in 2001). He continued to see Lopez patients until the end of his life. As Anne put it, “He was so generous with his time. I keep finding out now about friends and relatives who would call David. He was always helping somebody’s family.”
David’s activism functioned as a kind of dual career. In 1979, Dr. Judith Lipton’s grand rounds description of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima convinced David to set out on a lifelong journey to abolish nuclear weapons. He and Anne joined Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility (WPSR), and by the mid-nineties David had moved from chapter president to the presidency of national Physicians for Social Responsibility. Overall, David served on the national PSR board for ten years, and on the WPSR board for 38 years, twice as chapter president. In 2023, WPSR conferred upon him its Lifetime Achievement award.
In 1993, David and Anne joined a WPSR delegation to Israel and Palestine, where they met Dr. Eyad Sarraj, the founder of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme. This visit led them to eight more WPSR medical missions to Gaza, including one with Congressman Jim McDermott, wherein David confronted Yasser Arafat directly over the imprisonment and beating of Dr. Sarraj.
For forty years David and Anne have also been members of the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action and its standing protest against the nuclear-armed Trident submarines at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor on Hood Canal, 20 miles west of Seattle. Dave and Anne have been arrested many times in nonviolent actions demanding the abolition of these weapons.
On Lopez Island, David’s group memberships were many and varied. He was a member of the Lutheran Church in the San Juans; active with the Fisherman Bay Condominium Association; and a dedicated player in the Lopez Island Community Tennis Association. Along with Anne, David sang with the Lopez Community Singers, until COVID intervened. Most recently, he served as a Commissioner on the Lopez Island Hospital District.
Adoring his children and grandchildren, David led the family in countless hours of skiing, hiking, boating, building a vacation cabin, baking blackberry cobbler, and playing all varieties of team sports while cheering each other on.
David also found delight in talking with people of all ages and views. “The one-mile trip from the village to our house would take forever, because David had to stop to chat with everyone we passed,” Anne said. “He always wanted to understand people, to bring them together. He cared deeply about every person.”
David is survived by wife Rev. Anne Hall; son David Hall IV and daughter-in-law Kimberly Batayola of Rancho Santa Margarita, CA; son Jonathan Hall, MD and daughter-in-law Mikka Daye Hall of Kirkland, WA; grandchildren Bryce Hall, Parker Hall, Andrew Batayola, McKinley Hall, and Grayson Hall; and sisters Deborah Hall and Katherine Mann.
A memorial service will be held for David at 3 pm on Saturday, September 21, at Grace Episcopal Church, 70 Sunset Lane, Lopez Island. In place of flowers, please consider a gift in David’s honor to Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, 2524 16th Ave. S, #300, Seattle, WA 98144: https://www.wpsr.org/donate.
