Kenneth Keller Hall

Kenneth Keller Hall (February 24, 1918 – July 8, 1999) was a United States federal judge.

Life

Born in Greenview, West Virginia, Hall served in the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II, from 1942 to 1945. He received a J.D. from West Virginia University College of Law in 1948, and was in private practice in Madison, West Virginia from 1948 to 1953, also serving as Mayor of Madison from 1949 to 1952. He was a judge on the West Virginia 25th Judicial Circuit in Madison from 1953 to 1969, returning to private practice there from 1969 to 1970. He was a Hearing Examiner for the Bureau of Hearings and Appeals of the Social Security Administration in Charleston, West Virginia from 1970 to 1971.

On November 22, 1971, Hall was nominated by President Richard Nixon to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia vacated by John A. Field, Jr. Hall was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 1, 1971, and received his commission on December 6, 1971. While serving on the District Court for the Southern District of Virginia, Hall was the judge in Gerald M. Stern's book The Buffalo Creek Disaster, which is required reading in many law schools. That book chronicled a civil suit by West Virginia families who suffered damage in a mining accident.

On August 26, 1976, President Gerald Ford nominated Hall for elevation to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated by John A. Field, Jr. Hall was again confirmed by the United States Senate on September 1, 1976, and received his commission on September 3, 1976. He assumed senior status on February 24, 1998, serving in that capacity until his death, in Charleston, West Virginia.

Sources

• Kenneth Keller Hall at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.