Leonard Halling Obituary

Survived by his wife Esther S. Halling and their children, Kevin and his wife Shari Halling, Dale and his wife Kaila Geary Halling, Julie and her husband Paul Richards. He is also survived by a niece, Diane and her husband Mike Farmer, a brother-in-law Bill Wagner, a niece Linda and her husband Mel Field, and a nephew William "Chip" Wagner. Dr. Halling is also survived by eight grandchildren, Meredith, Kira, Geoffrey and Aristo Halling, Jessica, Tristan, Kelsey and Abrielle Murphy. He was the oldest of his two siblings, Marilyn Wagner and Wayne Halling, and outlived them both. He was born in Aurora, IL. He received a Bachelor's degree from University of Chicago. He was drafted into the Army in 1945. While waiting to be deployed to Japan, the US dropped the atomic bomb. He then received an M.D. degree from the University of Vermont. He met his beautiful French Canadian wife Esther there and married her on June 18, 1957 in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. He then did an internship at General Rose Hospital in Denver, CO. That was followed by a residency in Pathology from 1957-1962 at Tripler Hospital in Honolulu, HI where his sons Kevin and Dale were born. Following his residency he was stationed at Ft. Bragg, NC where his daughter Julie was born. After a couple of years he was then transferred to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington DC. In 1967 he decided it was time to leave the Army behind. He headed to Hays, Kansas to start his own pathology lab. The laboratory that he established became a major reference laboratory for western Kansas and eastern Colorado. While in Hays he joined Rotary and became a lifelong member. He served on the boards of the hospitals, headed up the United Way drive one year, taught some classes at Fort Hays State University, and served as the county coroner. In 1988 he sold the lab to his partner and in 1992 he retired. He then designed and built a house in Colorado Springs on Electra Drive which had a view of the Garden of the Gods which was dear to him. One of the main passions of his retirement was the study of General William Palmer. He was likely one of the world's foremost experts on General Palmer. Unfortunately, he never published his work. It is the hope of his children that they will be able to do this one day. He died in his house in Colorado Springs, with his wife by his side. During his lifetime he saw the development of the nuclear bomb, the jet engine, the computer, the Internet, the landing of man on the moon, the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA, gene sequencing and splicing and he read voraciously about all these subjects and much more. He grew extensive vegetable gardens, made pickles, made root beer, made wine, made sauerkraut, made sausage, and developed his own pictures. He had a lifelong obsession with Apple computers. He bought a Lisa, which was the forerunner to the Macintosh and cost around $10K at the time. He always upgraded his Apple computers to the latest operating system and was still a fan of Apple during their dark days in late 1990s. Bill Halling had a full and happy life and will be dearly missed. A memorial service will be held on December 7 at 11am at Broadmoor Community Church. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be sent to: Colorado Springs Philharmonic, P.O. Box 1266, 80903; Pioneers Museum, 215 S. Tejon, 80903; or the Broadmoor Community Church, 315 Lake Ave., 80906.