DODGE CITY – On Sunday, January 8, 2023, surrounded by family, Sedley Duane Hall, loving husband, and father of five, passed away peacefully at the Presbyterian Manor of the Plains in Dodge City, Kansas at age 101. An advocate for education, Sedley earned a doctorate in education and spent the majority of his professional years as a college professor at Alma College in Alma, Michigan. Sedley was born in Stratford, Iowa in 1921, but moved with his family to Long Beach, California during the “Dust Bowl” days. He had a gentle, quick-witted, generous spirit which belied his fierce determination. After graduating from Wilson High School in California, he enlisted in the Navy in 1940. As a SeaBee, he cleared jungles for landing strips in the South Pacific during World War II. He later served as a naval aviator, flying torpedo bombers off aircraft carriers. After the war, he used the GI Bill to go from a high school diploma to a doctorate, while raising five kids with his much-loved wife, Betty Ann. As a new university graduate, he taught at Curtis Agricultural High School in Curtis, NE, and then was an elementary school principal in McCook, NE. After receiving his doctorate in education, Sedley was a member of the faculty at Alma College for 25 years, the latter fifteen as chairman of the Education Department.
He was a mentor to a generation of teachers, and through them and his beloved family his legacy will brighten lives for many years to come. Sedley loved opera, travel, and all sports, especially golf. In his later years, his dreams were filled with the perfect drive down a long fairway. On his high school basketball team, he and his brother were known as the Dynamic Duo. At various times he coached or refereed basketball, football, baseball, and golf. To the delight of his children and grandchildren, he was also an amateur cartoonist. Sedley met his future bride, Elizabeth Ann Moll, in 1940. They married in 1942. They were each other’s best friends and companions for 76 years until Betty Ann passed in May 2018. They shared so much love in their lives. They had five children: John and wife, Helene Kessler; Anne and husband, Bill Van Hook; Joe and wife, Suzanne Kaufman-Hall; Mary Hall; Mark and wife, Teri Hall. They had 12 grandchildren, Rebecca Hall, Eliana Hall, Elizabeth Van Hook, Alexandra Van Hook, Brian Barrett, Kirstin Daniels, Ingrid Hall-Bidegain, Matthew Kaufman, Jason Kaufman, Christopher Doll, Sarah Heeke, Joshua Hall, James Hall, and Jaelynn Hall: and 12 greatgrandchildren.
A memorial service will be held for both Sedley and Betty Ann at a later time at Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado, and their ashes will be interred there. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Honor Flight of Southern Colorado at https:// honorflightsoco.net/donate or to Alma Collage at https://www.alma.edu/giving/make-a-gift/ by clicking on the link to the Online Giving Page.
