“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” I am no Winston Churchill, although I am his admirer, and Tim Hall did not fight in the Battle of Britain, although he was an RAF fighter pilot for several years in the late 1950s.

Nonetheless, those noble words are appropriate to describe Tim Hall’s contribution to the Department of Biology and to Texas A&M. Never was a truer Aggie born on foreign shores.

Tim was a season ticket holder and avid fan of Texas A&M football, as are many of the Eagle’s readers. But what Tim did for the Department of Biology and for Texas A&M is one of the premier, if also least appreciated, accomplishments in American academic history. He led the transformation of Biology at Texas A&M from a respectable agency of undergraduate teaching into a credible player on the national field of research and graduate training. In the earliest days he did it almost single-handedly, against a good deal of entrenched opposition.

To Tim’s dedication, passion, and amazing focus and energy, Texas A&M owes, more than to any other single person, the international status it has achieved in the life sciences. Those accomplishments required the fearlessness and selflessness that Tim brought to the task, and his willingness to sacrifice his own personal welfare for the department, university, and above all, the people that he loved. Those qualities Tim possessed in abundance.

We will miss you greatly, Tim, but we will not forget you. Let us not drop the torch that you carried so nobly for so long.

A further obituary can be found here.