Hall, Melvin, 1889-1962

Born in Bellows Falls, Vermont, on April 10, 1889, Hall graduated from Princeton University in 1910. He joined the British Expeditionary Force before the American entry into World War I. In 1917 he worked with Colonel William Mitchell in creating the U.S. Army Air Corps. In 1922 he married Josephine Johnson and joined the American Financial Commission to Persia as a provincial administrator working with Arthur Chester Millspaugh. During the next five years, he served as administrator of finances for East Persia and as acting treasurer-general and administrator of finances for South Persia. After 1927, he worked for Curtiss-Wright Aeroplane Export Company; for the Export-Import Bank in Washington, D.C., as special advisor on foreign trade to the President; for Sears and Roebuck, Inc.; for Caterpillar Tractor Co.; and for the Civil Aeronautics Authority as chief of the foreign economic section. He was a naval attache in Istanbul in 1941 and accepted a commission in the Army Air Corps in 1942; in 1943 he served as assistant chief of staff of the 9th Air Force. Following the war, he engaged in an active career as a writer, which continued until his death. In 1952, Hall acted as chief of a special mission sent to Indochina, and was the personal representative of General Walter Bedell Smith. He acted as special assistant to the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. After this mission, he retired to Vezelay, France. He.

Died in New York City on November 23, 1962.