Dr. Clifford C. Hall

Hall, Clifford C., Dr. NEWTOWN, PA. Dr. Clifford Charles Hall, age 55, of Newtown, Pa., passed away unexpectedly in New Jersey on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2008. Clifford was born in Madison on Feb. 2, 1953, the fifth child of Charles Robert Hall and Thelma Esther (Hoyt) Hall. He graduated from Cambridge High School in 1971 and from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1975 with a B.S. in chemistry. He successfully defended a Ph.D. in biochemical pharmacology in December 1980. Clifford resided on the East Coast after finishing his Ph.D. He lived in Glenolden, Pa. from 1982 until 1986, while he worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Barry S. Cooperman, a noted ribosome expert. From 1986 until 1994, Clifford was a pharmaceutical biochemist at Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. (Nutley, N.J.), where he conducted research for new antibiotics and cancer drugs. In 1995, Clifford moved to the drug approval specialty of the pharmaceutical industry, using his scientific background and skills in the capacity of a medical/scientific writer to help assemble the complex applications needed for the FDA to approve new drugs. He quickly rose to managerial rank in medical writing. He was part of Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories (Radnor, Pa.) from 1995 until 1998, and led the group of medical writers who wrote the drug submission to gain approval of major innovative rheumatoid arthritis product (Enbrel) in 14 countries of Europe. In late 1998, he joined Novo Nordisk Inc. (Princeton, N.J.), where he participated in successful campaigns to gain FDA approvals for new insulins and other products. He resigned his position as director of medical writing for U.S. operations of that company in April 2008, and he began his current position of senior medical writing manager at Mannkind Corp. (Paramus, N.J.), a bio-pharmaceutical research company. Clifford enjoyed studying Russian, meteorology, astronomy, physics, and anthropology as part of his formal education. His hobbies included fossil history, canoeing, rafting on rapids, computers, U.S. history, photography, painting, Indian archeology and travel. Clifford explored most of the U.S. and traveled extensively for business and pleasure to locations such as Nova Scotia, Australia, the Bahamas, Japan, France, Italy, and made more than a dozen trips to Copenhagen, Denmark. His favorite places were Gettysburg, the beautiful canyons of the Southwest, Nova Scotia and Australia. Cliffords primary hobby was the extensive project of recovering, writing and distributing the familys genealogy. He felt it was his destiny and believed we all need to understand where we come from, if we are ever to understand who we are. He was a brilliant, humorous, artistic, energetic and determined man, who left his family the priceless gift of their heritage. He is survived by a son, Grant R. Hall of New Jersey; his mother, Thelma E. Hall of Cambridge, Wis.; and three siblings, Edith (Randy) Jablonic of Bessemer, Mich., Thelma M. Hall of Saginaw, Mich., and Charles J. (Marie) Hall of Albuquerque, N.M.; many loving nieces and nephews, who learned so much from Uncle Cliff; and friends and colleagues, who admired and respected him. Clifford was preceded in death by his father, Charles R. Hall, in 1983; and a sister, Martha C. Sorenson, in 1994. He was interred at Prairie Mound Cemetery in Oregon, Wis. on Friday, Sept. 19, 2008, following an intimate celebration of his life.