Duane R. "Dewey" Hall (1936-2016): Retired dean of students later a water safety deputy

2/12/2016

LAMBERTVILLE — Duane R. “Dewey” Hall, retired dean of students at Bedford Junior High School who liked to socialize and tell stories but brooked no nonsense as a teacher and administrator, died Tuesday in ProMedica Toledo Hospital. He was 79.

He’d dealt with several types of cancer in recent years, most recently leukemia, said Priscilla Durbin, a friend for 25 years.

Mr. Hall retired in 1991 after 20 years in the Bedford school district and more than 30 years as an educator. One duty as dean at Bedford Junior High was to keep order. He monitored student behavior, enforced the dress code, broke up fights, and had the occasional word with teachers gone astray.

“He kept the school in line. If he found something wrong, he took care of it,” said John MacPherson, a friend since high school. “He was good with kids, and he was a disciplinarian.”

To Ray Leighton, “He was always ‘Coach.’

“He was just a good guy. He tolerated nothing,” said Mr. Leighton, a student in Mr. Hall’s physical education class about 1970. “He never let anybody get picked on or bullied. He’d always be the first one to stop that.”

Mr. Hall began his career as a teacher in Rossford and then Toledo public schools.

In retirement, he was a water safety deputy for the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and a courier for Pro-Medica.

Mr. Hall was a member of the Toledo Ski Club and liked to take part in year-round activities — Friday- night coffee houses and card parties, the golf league. He was active in the Bedford Lions Club. A Mason, he was a member of Samaria Lodge, F&AM, and had been a sergeant of the Zenobia Shrine Highlanders’ guard unit.

“He just loved to talk,” Ms. Durbin said. “He had all kinds of stories because he had been everywhere.”

He could just as easily sit back and listen, she said.

“He was a big socializer,” Ms. Durbin said. “Not having kids or a family, he had more time to socialize.”

He’d been a partner in two taverns and two bowling alleys, including Glenwood Lanes and, with his then-wife, Linda, the Barge Inn.

He was born Feb. 13, 1936, to Bernetta and George Hall. He was a 1955 graduate of Macomber Vocational High School. A guard on the football team, he was named to the Blade All-City team. At Adrian College, he was team co-captain and, according to a published account, was ranked as one of the finest linemen in Michigan small- college football. Back in Toledo, he played for the semipro Tornadoes.

Already a member of Adrian’s Hall of Fame, he was inducted into the Toledo City League Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004.

His marriage to the late Barbara Hall also ended in divorce.

Surviving are his brothers, Melvin and Raymond.

Visitation will be from 3-8 p.m. today in the Michael W. Pawlak Funeral Home, Temperance, with services to be held there at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Tributes are suggested to the Bedford Township Lions Club or Shriners Hospitals for Children.

Contact Mark Zaborney at: mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.