BLUE HILL – Hal F. Reynolds, 84, died in his sleep May 17, 2011, at Parker Ridge, Blue Hill, after a year and a half long fight with brain cancer. The only child of Hal and Hazel Reynolds, Hal was born March 16, 1927, in Cleveland, where he attended grade school.
Hal graduated from Culver Military Academy, Williams College, Phi Beta Kappa, and Harvard Law School where he was awarded the prize as the best orator in the Ames Moot Court competition. During his career, which spanned more than five decades, Hal divided time equally between the public and private sectors. After college, Hal joined the Truman State Department and then taught economics at Williams College for one year before attending law school. After working as a corporate lawyer at Davis Polk Wardwell in New York in the 1950s, Hal returned to the State Department to join USAID in response to President Kennedy’s call for developed nations to provide greater economic and humanitarian assistance to the developing world. From there Hal worked at the Treasury Department before receiving a presidential appointment to the World Bank as a U.S. director, a position he held during the Nixon and Ford administrations. In 1977 Hal returned to the private sector joining Gulf Oil in Pittsburgh and later Chevron in San Francisco, where he helped the company expand their oil properties in Russia and Africa. In 1957 Hal married Desire “Dizzy” Griffiths of Riverdale, N.Y. The two met in the Harvard library where Dizzy was studying for her master’s degree in economics from Wellesley. That year Dizzy brought Hal to “As You Like It,” her father Hugh Griffiths’ house in Eggemoggin on Little Deer Isle. Hal would spend the next 35 years summering there with his family until his retirement when he and Dizzy moved to “Oakhurst Farm” on Deer Isle. They raised their four children, Anne, Hal, Jane and Hugh, in New York City, on their farm in Great Falls, Va., at “Hillside” in Sewickley, Pa., on Lombard, “the Crooked Street” in San Francisco, and in Maine. The highlight for the family each year was spending the month of July at “As You Like It.” Hal’s passions were reading, politics, golf and his family. Rarely did a day go by when Hal couldn’t be found reading a good book in a comfortable chair in his living room. His reading interests ranged from British novels to biographies and history. His conservative political beliefs were forged from many years of experiences and observations working in both the private and public sectors in the U.S., Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa. On summer days, Hal played golf with family and friends at both the Deer Isle and Blue Hill country clubs. His greatest enjoyment in life came from being with his family, who welcomed their many friends into their houses for festive celebrations and lobster dinners. Hal was renowned for his comedic story telling from the head of the family dinner table. After a period of great despair following the losses of his oldest daughter, Anne, and his wife, Dizzy, Hal was introduced to Patricia Hill of Athens, Ga., by Phil and Flo deGozzaldi, lifelong friends on Little Deer Isle. After a wonderful weekend with the deGozzaldis at the Atlanta Jazz Party, Hal and Pat were married a year later in the Episcopal Church in Brunswick, Ga., and spent two great years traveling and enjoying their nightly martini together. During the last year they lived at Parker Ridge where Pat and a superb team of nurses took wonderful care of Hal. On a daily basis they were entertained by the “twins,” Hal’s one-year-old grandchildren, Hugh and Alexandra, who brightened their days immeasurably.
Hal was predeceased by his first wife, Dizzy; and their oldest child, Anne. Hal is survived by his wife, Pat; and three children: his son, Hal W. Reynolds, who lives with his wife, Lisa, and their three children, Elle, Will and Margaux in Los Angeles and Little Deer Isle; his daughter, Jane R. Griffith and her husband, Charles, of San Francisco; and his youngest son, Hugh F. Reynolds, who operates Greenhead Lobster, Stonington, and lives on Deer Isle with his wife, Polly, and their five children, Avery, Anne, Hadley, Hugh and Alexandra.
Services will be held 1 p.m. Sunday, May 29, at the Congregational Church, Deer Isle, with a reception afterward at “Oakhurst Farm.” Gifts in Hal’s memory may be made to Reach Performing Arts Center, Deer Isle School, 249 N. Deer Isle Road, Deer Isle, ME 04627.