Hall, William T.

Submitted by Mike Miller

William T. Hall is a New Orleans man who has made of business a real profession. He has valued his work as worthy of his best energies, talents and enthusiasm and has been satisfied with nothing less than the highest realizable fitness for the work he does. Mr. Hall is a prominent figure in the rice milling industry of Louisiana, and he also enjoys a notable honor and responsibility as a member of the State Board of Education and is also one of the of the New Orleans city commissioners.

He was born at New Orleans, in l887, son of Theodore P. and Sophia (Lupp) Hall. The circumstances of his youth were such that his formal schooling ended with the seventh grade in the public schools. Since then his education has been a gradual process of private study and the thriving force of his own ambition to neglect no opportunity that might better qualify hum for the carrying on of his business. He studied mathematics in the Sophia Wright night schools, pursued correspondence courses in bookkeeping and business administration with the Alexander Hamilton Institute; for over two years studied economics and advertising in the School of Business Administration of Tulane University, and at the present time is attending night classes at the Loyola University Law School.

Mr. Hall when a boy went to work at the New Orleans plant and offices of the Talmadge Panama Rice Milling Company, one of the largest concerns of its kind in New Orleans. He has been with this concern in consecutive stages of promotion until he is now president, sole owner and active manager.

In the fall of 1924 Governor Fuqua appointed Mr. Hall a member of the Louisiana State Board of Education. His position in business affairs and his interest in education in general eminently qualify him for membership on this board. At the New Orleans municipal election of February 4, 1925, he was elected a member of the Board of City Commissioners, taking office in May, 1925. He is one of the four city commissioners which, together with the mayor, constitutes the municipal government of New Orleans. He was elected on the Martin Behrman ticket, Mr. Hall married Miss Edna Waldo, and they have one daughter, Esther.

NOTE: The sketch is accompanied by a black and white photograph/drawing of the subject.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 373-374, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.