The Reverend Dr. C. Kenneth Hall beloved husband, father, pastor, and friend passed away peacefully at 1:00 p.m. on October 15, 2004 at Butler Memorial Hospital after a short illness. 

He was born on November 12, 1924 in Carnegie, Pennsylvania to parents Myrtle S. and Charles F.  Upon graduating from Carnegie High School in 1942, he enlisted in the U. S. Navy, where he was assigned to radar repair on an aircraft carrier.  After being discharged in 1946, he enrolled at  Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University), where he graduated in 1948 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering.  He was employed as a Chemical Engineer at the Gulf Research and Development Company for three years, from 1948 to 1951, when he received the calling to become a minister.  He enrolled at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 1952, graduating in 1954 with a Master of Divinity degree; and being ordained by the Monongahela Presbytery (UP Church of NA) on May 22, 1954. (He returned to the Seminary to receive his Doctorate of Ministry in 1978.) His first "assignment" was as Pastor of the Jefferson United Presbyterian Church in Gill Hall, Pennsylvania where he served from 1954 to 1957. He was then summoned to come to Butler, where he served as Pastor of the Hill United Presbyterian Church from 1957-1988; and then from 1989-1991.  He had become involved with the General Assembly in 1980, serving on the Mission Council and its Executive Committee until 1983, after which he was promoted to Chairperson in 1984.  Being concerned about the problems in Northern Ireland, he joined the Presbyterian Committee on Northern Ireland in 1988, traveling there several years for the Irish Summer Institute.  He then took a year's sabbatical from Hill Church when he was elected Moderator of the 200th General Assembly (Presbyterian Church USA) in 1988.  By the end of 1991, he retired to take a new "assignment" as Minister at Large for the Presbyterian Church (USA) Foundation, where he served until his retirement in July of 2003.  He once said that between working for the Foundation and being Moderator that he had been to almost every state in the Union and almost every country in the world. He continued to be involved with the Pittsburgh Seminary, serving on the Board of Directors from 1993-1996 and on the board of Trustees at the University of Dubuque from 1997-2000.  The Seminary honored him with a Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1991.

 

Surviving are his wife, Rose Kurtz, whom he married on June 1956; a daughter, Carole S., at home; a son, Roger A. of Brooklin, Maine.

A memorial service will be held at the Hill United Presbyterian Church on Saturday, October 23, 2004 at 11:00 a.m.

 

Memorial donations may be made to The C. Kenneth Hall Northern Ireland Fund, The Presbyterian Foundation, 200 East 12th Street, Jeffersonville, Indiana 47130 or to the Hill United Presbyterian Church, 501 Second Street, Butler, Pennsylvania 16001