January 28
The Kansas City Star
Adele Coryell Hall, who left a sweet legacy of caring and
leadership throughout the Kansas City area as well as landmarks of art
and culture, died Saturday.
She was at their home in Hawaii with her husband Donald Joyce Hall, chairman of Hallmark Cards. She was 81.
“If there ever was a first lady of Kansas City, it was Adele,” said Henry Bloch, founder of H&R Block, whose association with the Halls in civic and philanthropic endeavors goes back decades.
“She was honored and respected by everybody. It’s a major loss for this community.”
Adele Hall was the first woman to be president of the Heart of America United Way and also honored as the Kansas Citian of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce. She served as board chairman of Children’s Mercy Hospital and also was named the Kindest Kansas Citian by the STOP Violence Coalition.
“The news of Adele’s death came in the middle of our monthly chamber board meeting, and the entire room fell into stunned silence when it was announced,” said Jim Heeter president of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. “She was known and loved by virtually everyone around our board table. We observed a long moment of silence in her honor and her memory.”
At Hallmark Cards, spokesman Steven Doyal said the gloom was deep.
“Her heart gave out, totally unexpectedly, at their home on the big island of Hawaii, in Kamuela. They had eaten breakfast and were looking forward to watching the KU game, but then she was gone.
“We lost a great human being,” he said. “Her greatest passion was in the area of children. She believed passionately in the potential of every child.”
At Children’s Mercy, she had moved easily from rocking sick babies in the nursery to running board meetings and leading multi-million-dollar fundraising campaigns. One of the best known was with Tom Watson, with whom she established the Children’s Mercy Golf Classic, which raised more than $10 million for the hospital over a quarter century.
“She was quick to give others credit,” said Jack Ovel, hospital board chairman. “She was always telling other people, ‘You are the wind beneath my wings.’
“Perhaps her biggest collaboration effort was to bring KU and Children’s Mercy together,” he said. “Early on she realized what that would mean for the Kansas Citians.”
Adele Hall devoted relentless hours of volunteer time focusing on better health and education organizations for indigent children, such as the Partnership for Children and Children’s TLC (formerly the Crippled Children’s Nursery School), both as board chairman; the American Academy of Pediatrics; CARE Inc., which feeds millions of children around the world; the National Commission on Children; and the Youth Volunteer Corps of America, as vice-chairman.
Her longtime friend Irv Hockaday, former CEO of Hallmark who knew Hall and her husband for close to 50 years, described as having her own gravity.
“She was like a magnetic sun, a human sun, whose constant warmth and magnetism just had a pull. And people gravitated to her.”
Mary Shaw “Shawsie” Branton lost a good friend with whom she had worked on one charitable effort, one civic group after another.
“She touched all our lives,” said Branton. “There was an aura around Adele. ‘How can I help? What can I do?’ She didn’t care if she was president or chairman of the committee. I don’t think she ever cared. It was more, ‘How can I find a solution?’”
For her 92nd birthday, Branton invited a few friends to lunch with her and the children at TLC. Hall had accepted a luncheon invitation elsewhere, but sent her regrets to the other engagement so she could join Branton and the kids instead — a classic Adele Hall moment, she said.
The family also is famous for its long and vital association with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. While Donald Hall was on the museum board for 31 years, Adele co-chaired, with Morton Sosland, the capital campaign that raised more than $300 million to build the Bloch Building and renovate the original building.
“Adele and Don shared a passion for art that inspired me and made me excited to come to Kansas City and be part of this city’s love of culture,” said Julián Zugazagoitia, museum director. “They have shown me what can result from years of service, stewardship and love of an entire community.”
With her husband, Adele Hall created the gift of the Henry Moore Sculpture Garden at the Nelson. In 1984, she served as chairman of the 30th anniversary of the Jewel Ball, held annually at the museum to raise funds for it and the Kansas City Symphony.
The Hall Family Foundation also nurtured the world-class Hallmark Photographic Collection that was acquired by the Nelson-Atkins in 2006. Four years later, the Halls announced that they would donate seven pieces of their extensive collection of African art to the Nelson. On Monday, a national conference of museum directors was scheduled to tour the couple’s collection at their home.
“This is a day of great sorrow,” said Sarah F. Rowland, chairwoman of the Nelson-Atkins Board of Trustees.
“Everything she did was about inspiring Kansas Citians,” said Jane Chu, CEO of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. “She so believed in these projects because she believed in this city, she cared about making it a great place to live.”
She was a role model of giving, a person to emulate, Chu said. “Her death hits us all hard.”
The former Adele Coryell, born Oct. 7, 1931, in Lincoln, Neb., had lived in Kansas City since her marriage to Hall in 1953. She graduated from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where she was a cheerleader and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, scholastic honorary fraternity. Years later, the University of Nebraska awarded her an honorary doctor of humane letters.
Hall and her husband were a devoted couple. They met when she was 3 years old and he was 6 at Grand Lake, Colo., where their families had summer homes. She once said in an interview: “I don’t ever remember falling in love with Don; I just grew up being in love with him.”
Her priorities were always her husband and children, but her involvement with the community and its people took a close second. She carved her own niche and was called on for her personal ability to lead, not just because she was Mrs. Donald J. Hall.
“She was very down to earth,” Bloch said. “She didn’t take advantage of her place in society. She was nice to everybody, a very genuine person.”
“To me, her most compelling quality, of many, was her empathy,” said Hockaday. “She could recognize people who were hurting or had an aspiration that they were having trouble reaching, or had had problems that they didn’t particularly want to talk about.
“I have never seen such a remarkable instinct, like a sixth sense, in anyone. Many people, I’m sure, have remarked on her philanthropy and her love of family. I think of that as a double helix. Her love of family was compelling. But you need to define for Adele her family as the world, in a way.
“They say that no one is indispensable. That’s true in a way. But she comes about as close to being someone we can never, ever forget or replicate.”
She was board chairwoman of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, and served on the boards of the Pembroke Hill School, Salvation Army, Starlight Theatre and American Red Cross. Co-founder of the Central Exchange and the Women’s Public Service Network, she encouraged women in the work place.
The Halls also established the Alexis de Toqueville Society Award to encourage major contributors in the annual fund drive for the United Way.
Her numerous honors over the years also include the UMKC Chancellor’s Medal, the university’s highest award outside the campus; the Johnson Countian of the Year award from Johnson County Community College; the Urban League’s Kansas Citian Award; the 1985 Civic Service Award by the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, the Distinguished Leadership Award from Baker University, Baldwin City, Kan.; the Philanthropist of the Year from the Kansas City Council on Philanthropy; and the William F. Yates Trustee Medallion for Distinguished Service from William Jewell College,
Her gentle manner, warm smile and sincerity cut through all social stratas, and her involvement touched all cultures and denominations. She was serving as vice-chairman of the United Negro College Fund and on the advisory boards of the DeLaSalle Education Center, Genesis School, the Rose Brooks Center (for abused women and their children), United Community Services, Metropolitan Lutheran Ministry and Family Matters.
The Urban League of Greater Kansas City gave Don and Adele Hall its Difference Maker of the Year Award in December. The award honored their philanthropy and civic leadership, particularly their hand in forming the Black Community Fund and Hispanic Development Fund.
The group’s president, Gwen Grant, was stunned by the news. “I was always struck by her style and her grace and how personable she was, and she was that way at the luncheon in December.”
A student from Sumner Academy spoke at the luncheon and introduced himself to the Halls, telling them excitedly of his plans to attend Duke University.
“They were so genuinely concerned about him and trying to figure out how they could help,” said Grant. “And he told me he got a letter from them later. He was so excited.”
Privy to wealth and friends in high places throughout the world, she and her husband could easily have lived a life of leisure and travel. But instead they stayed close to home, dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for others through their own efforts, complemented by the Hall Family Foundation. That foundation is listed at the top level of philanthropic giving on virtually every program of every charitable event in Kansas City.
The Halls’ spacious home in Mission Hills has been the setting for many nonprofit-related events and benefactor receptions. On weekends, it is the scene of family reunions and often it is an overnight haven for distinguished visitors, such as good friends George H.W. and Barbara Bush. She also served on the board for the George Bush Presidential Library Center and his Points of Light Foundation.
“Adele’s passion for politics has made our state and our country a better place to live,” said U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican. “She was an adviser to presidents, governors, senators, members of Congress, and many other leaders in her community. Her advice and guidance were invaluable to me, and personally, I will always owe her a debt of gratitude.
“The heavens are a little brighter tonight because they have a shining star in Adele Hall.”
Adele Hall was a member of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Kansas City.
Besides her husband, she leaves sons, Donald J. Hall Jr. and his wife Jill, and David E. Hall and his wife Laura; a daughter, Margaret Hall Pence; and nine grandchildren, who called her “Nunuc.”
Arrangements are pending and will be handled by Stine & McClure Chapel in Kansas City. In lieu of flowers and in tribute to Adele Hall vision of her community, the family suggests contributions to Children’s Mercy, the Nelson museum, Pembroke Hill School, the Salvation Army, United Way or Wayside Waifs.
She was at their home in Hawaii with her husband Donald Joyce Hall, chairman of Hallmark Cards. She was 81.
“If there ever was a first lady of Kansas City, it was Adele,” said Henry Bloch, founder of H&R Block, whose association with the Halls in civic and philanthropic endeavors goes back decades.
“She was honored and respected by everybody. It’s a major loss for this community.”
Adele Hall was the first woman to be president of the Heart of America United Way and also honored as the Kansas Citian of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce. She served as board chairman of Children’s Mercy Hospital and also was named the Kindest Kansas Citian by the STOP Violence Coalition.
“The news of Adele’s death came in the middle of our monthly chamber board meeting, and the entire room fell into stunned silence when it was announced,” said Jim Heeter president of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. “She was known and loved by virtually everyone around our board table. We observed a long moment of silence in her honor and her memory.”
At Hallmark Cards, spokesman Steven Doyal said the gloom was deep.
“Her heart gave out, totally unexpectedly, at their home on the big island of Hawaii, in Kamuela. They had eaten breakfast and were looking forward to watching the KU game, but then she was gone.
“We lost a great human being,” he said. “Her greatest passion was in the area of children. She believed passionately in the potential of every child.”
At Children’s Mercy, she had moved easily from rocking sick babies in the nursery to running board meetings and leading multi-million-dollar fundraising campaigns. One of the best known was with Tom Watson, with whom she established the Children’s Mercy Golf Classic, which raised more than $10 million for the hospital over a quarter century.
“She was quick to give others credit,” said Jack Ovel, hospital board chairman. “She was always telling other people, ‘You are the wind beneath my wings.’
“Perhaps her biggest collaboration effort was to bring KU and Children’s Mercy together,” he said. “Early on she realized what that would mean for the Kansas Citians.”
Adele Hall devoted relentless hours of volunteer time focusing on better health and education organizations for indigent children, such as the Partnership for Children and Children’s TLC (formerly the Crippled Children’s Nursery School), both as board chairman; the American Academy of Pediatrics; CARE Inc., which feeds millions of children around the world; the National Commission on Children; and the Youth Volunteer Corps of America, as vice-chairman.
Her longtime friend Irv Hockaday, former CEO of Hallmark who knew Hall and her husband for close to 50 years, described as having her own gravity.
“She was like a magnetic sun, a human sun, whose constant warmth and magnetism just had a pull. And people gravitated to her.”
Mary Shaw “Shawsie” Branton lost a good friend with whom she had worked on one charitable effort, one civic group after another.
“She touched all our lives,” said Branton. “There was an aura around Adele. ‘How can I help? What can I do?’ She didn’t care if she was president or chairman of the committee. I don’t think she ever cared. It was more, ‘How can I find a solution?’”
For her 92nd birthday, Branton invited a few friends to lunch with her and the children at TLC. Hall had accepted a luncheon invitation elsewhere, but sent her regrets to the other engagement so she could join Branton and the kids instead — a classic Adele Hall moment, she said.
The family also is famous for its long and vital association with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. While Donald Hall was on the museum board for 31 years, Adele co-chaired, with Morton Sosland, the capital campaign that raised more than $300 million to build the Bloch Building and renovate the original building.
“Adele and Don shared a passion for art that inspired me and made me excited to come to Kansas City and be part of this city’s love of culture,” said Julián Zugazagoitia, museum director. “They have shown me what can result from years of service, stewardship and love of an entire community.”
With her husband, Adele Hall created the gift of the Henry Moore Sculpture Garden at the Nelson. In 1984, she served as chairman of the 30th anniversary of the Jewel Ball, held annually at the museum to raise funds for it and the Kansas City Symphony.
The Hall Family Foundation also nurtured the world-class Hallmark Photographic Collection that was acquired by the Nelson-Atkins in 2006. Four years later, the Halls announced that they would donate seven pieces of their extensive collection of African art to the Nelson. On Monday, a national conference of museum directors was scheduled to tour the couple’s collection at their home.
“This is a day of great sorrow,” said Sarah F. Rowland, chairwoman of the Nelson-Atkins Board of Trustees.
“Everything she did was about inspiring Kansas Citians,” said Jane Chu, CEO of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. “She so believed in these projects because she believed in this city, she cared about making it a great place to live.”
She was a role model of giving, a person to emulate, Chu said. “Her death hits us all hard.”
The former Adele Coryell, born Oct. 7, 1931, in Lincoln, Neb., had lived in Kansas City since her marriage to Hall in 1953. She graduated from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where she was a cheerleader and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, scholastic honorary fraternity. Years later, the University of Nebraska awarded her an honorary doctor of humane letters.
Hall and her husband were a devoted couple. They met when she was 3 years old and he was 6 at Grand Lake, Colo., where their families had summer homes. She once said in an interview: “I don’t ever remember falling in love with Don; I just grew up being in love with him.”
Her priorities were always her husband and children, but her involvement with the community and its people took a close second. She carved her own niche and was called on for her personal ability to lead, not just because she was Mrs. Donald J. Hall.
“She was very down to earth,” Bloch said. “She didn’t take advantage of her place in society. She was nice to everybody, a very genuine person.”
“To me, her most compelling quality, of many, was her empathy,” said Hockaday. “She could recognize people who were hurting or had an aspiration that they were having trouble reaching, or had had problems that they didn’t particularly want to talk about.
“I have never seen such a remarkable instinct, like a sixth sense, in anyone. Many people, I’m sure, have remarked on her philanthropy and her love of family. I think of that as a double helix. Her love of family was compelling. But you need to define for Adele her family as the world, in a way.
“They say that no one is indispensable. That’s true in a way. But she comes about as close to being someone we can never, ever forget or replicate.”
She was board chairwoman of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, and served on the boards of the Pembroke Hill School, Salvation Army, Starlight Theatre and American Red Cross. Co-founder of the Central Exchange and the Women’s Public Service Network, she encouraged women in the work place.
The Halls also established the Alexis de Toqueville Society Award to encourage major contributors in the annual fund drive for the United Way.
Her numerous honors over the years also include the UMKC Chancellor’s Medal, the university’s highest award outside the campus; the Johnson Countian of the Year award from Johnson County Community College; the Urban League’s Kansas Citian Award; the 1985 Civic Service Award by the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, the Distinguished Leadership Award from Baker University, Baldwin City, Kan.; the Philanthropist of the Year from the Kansas City Council on Philanthropy; and the William F. Yates Trustee Medallion for Distinguished Service from William Jewell College,
Her gentle manner, warm smile and sincerity cut through all social stratas, and her involvement touched all cultures and denominations. She was serving as vice-chairman of the United Negro College Fund and on the advisory boards of the DeLaSalle Education Center, Genesis School, the Rose Brooks Center (for abused women and their children), United Community Services, Metropolitan Lutheran Ministry and Family Matters.
The Urban League of Greater Kansas City gave Don and Adele Hall its Difference Maker of the Year Award in December. The award honored their philanthropy and civic leadership, particularly their hand in forming the Black Community Fund and Hispanic Development Fund.
The group’s president, Gwen Grant, was stunned by the news. “I was always struck by her style and her grace and how personable she was, and she was that way at the luncheon in December.”
A student from Sumner Academy spoke at the luncheon and introduced himself to the Halls, telling them excitedly of his plans to attend Duke University.
“They were so genuinely concerned about him and trying to figure out how they could help,” said Grant. “And he told me he got a letter from them later. He was so excited.”
Privy to wealth and friends in high places throughout the world, she and her husband could easily have lived a life of leisure and travel. But instead they stayed close to home, dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for others through their own efforts, complemented by the Hall Family Foundation. That foundation is listed at the top level of philanthropic giving on virtually every program of every charitable event in Kansas City.
The Halls’ spacious home in Mission Hills has been the setting for many nonprofit-related events and benefactor receptions. On weekends, it is the scene of family reunions and often it is an overnight haven for distinguished visitors, such as good friends George H.W. and Barbara Bush. She also served on the board for the George Bush Presidential Library Center and his Points of Light Foundation.
“Adele’s passion for politics has made our state and our country a better place to live,” said U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican. “She was an adviser to presidents, governors, senators, members of Congress, and many other leaders in her community. Her advice and guidance were invaluable to me, and personally, I will always owe her a debt of gratitude.
“The heavens are a little brighter tonight because they have a shining star in Adele Hall.”
Adele Hall was a member of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Kansas City.
Besides her husband, she leaves sons, Donald J. Hall Jr. and his wife Jill, and David E. Hall and his wife Laura; a daughter, Margaret Hall Pence; and nine grandchildren, who called her “Nunuc.”
Arrangements are pending and will be handled by Stine & McClure Chapel in Kansas City. In lieu of flowers and in tribute to Adele Hall vision of her community, the family suggests contributions to Children’s Mercy, the Nelson museum, Pembroke Hill School, the Salvation Army, United Way or Wayside Waifs.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/01/28/4036339/adele-hall-first-lady-of-kansas.html#storylink=cpy
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