Wilbur Hall Obituary

Wilbur Raymond Hall, Jr.
Wilbur Hall, beloved husband of Barbara Hall and adored father of Ellen, Julie, and Bill, died on Thursday, July 3, at home in Portland. He was born in Topsham, Maine, on October 15, 1947, the son of Marian Hall and Wilbur Hall, Sr.
Will's father died when he was a boy of nine. While his mother worked outside the home, he enjoyed a carefree childhood roaming the fields with his best friend, John.
After graduating from Brunswick High School in 1955, he entered the U.S. Marine Corps., serving on bases from Parris Island to Jacksonville, Memphis, and finally, Santa Ana, California. Southern California was paradise to a young man from a cold climate, and it was there that he developed his lifelong love of warm weather. A highlight of his later years was cruising through the Panama Canal and visiting Playa Venao with family.
Returning to Maine in 1958, he enrolled at Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute (now SMCC) to learn the machine-tool trade.
At a school dance given by student nurses at Maine Medical Center, he met his future wife, Barbara Pineo. As he later told his children, "So I said to this wallflower, would you like to dance?" But that night he told his roommates, "I just met the girl I'm going to marry."
The couple eloped in 1961, moving to Melrose, Massachusetts, and welcomed daughter Ellen the following year. Ever-adventurous, Will and Barb packed their belongings, placed their three-month-old baby in a peach basket, and moved to Denver, Colorado, where their second daughter, Julie, was born.
They returned to Maine in 1964. In 1965, they welcomed a son, Wilbur (Bill) Raymond Hall III. They settled in Windham, where they lived for the next 56 years.
Wilbur went to work at The Portland Company, and subsequently became a machine tool instructor at SMVTI, which required that he earn a bachelor's degree in education. He achieved that after nine years of night school in 1974. During his teaching tenure, he transitioned the machine shop from mechanical-to-computerized equipment, creating the first such program in Maine.
Wilbur was the consummate innovator, using solar panels to preheat hot water and installing a metal roof long before either of those energy-saving methods were popular. In 1982, he opened his own machine shop where he engineered products for the medical and electronics industries, being granted two patents along the way.
Summers always meant camping trips with friends and family to Mount Katahdin, the White Mountains, Montreal, Cooperstown, Sebago Lake, Wilderness Campground, and Washington, D.C. During the 1980s-90s, Wilbur saw the college graduations and weddings of all three of his children, followed by the births of eight spirited grandchildren.
Beginning in the year 2000, Will and Barb began traveling each winter. Each January, you would find them driving south and west to visit friends and family. Their odyssey began in a humble tent, but they soon graduated to a small motorhome. Along the way, they stayed at many state and national parks, with Tucson soon becoming their favorite – typically, Will would bask in the sun while Barb hiked the desert trails. Being in the American southwest enabled them to join their Denver grandchildren for adventures. Back in Maine, the motorhome became a favorite mode of travel among their Maine grandchildren.
Wilbur will be remembered for his kindness, his wonderful sense of humor, laughing the hardest at his own jokes, sparing no expense at saving money, assuring everyone they were his favorite, a gentle, teasing manner, and his famously innovative and generous backyard lobster feasts.
Will was predeceased by his parents and siblings, Frank and Agnes. He is survived by his wife, and children Ellen (Eric), Julie (Dan), and Wilbur (Beth). He is also survived by his grandchildren, Patrick, Blaine, Jack, Jordan, Ellen Grace, Claire, Madison, and William, nieces and nephews, and bonus grandchildren, Jessica, Ty, Max, Peter, Gilman, Kyle, Matt, Tyler, David, and Daniel. Special thanks to those who have made this journey so much easier: our children and their wonderful friends, Bro' David, our wonderful neighbors, and caregivers Susie, Shari, Ann, Lara and the folks at Beacon Hospice.
A memorial service will be held on July 19, 2025 at 11:00 AM at State Street Church, UCC, 159 State Street, Portland, officiated by the Reverend Bryan Breault.