Hall, Roger 1919–2008

(Roger Wolcott Hall)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born May 20, 1919, in Baltimore, MD; died of congestive heart failure, July 20, 2008, in Windsor Hills, DE. Intelligence agent, radio announcer, journalist, cartoon editor, humorist, and author. Wherever Hall worked, from the secret corridors of wartime espionage to the faceless recording booths of radio stations to the cartoon pages of True magazine, his sense of humor went with him. He joined the Office of Strategic Services in its early days, before caution and protocol became the watchwords of the day, when creativity and audacity were part of the job description. He saw it as the perfect alternative to conventional military service. Throughout World War II Hall served with paratroopers in England and with the less visible Norwegian campaign, an Allied collaboration intended to weaken the Nazi occupation of Norway that had begun in 1940. When the Office of Strategic Services evolved into the Central Intelligence Agency, Hall reportedly declined numerous job offers from the new bureaucracy, preferring the creative freedom of a media career. He worked briefly as a public address announcer for a Baltimore sports franchise until an on-air comment linking seeing-eye dogs to game officials cost him his job. He later hosted a radio music program called You Can't Fight Roger Hall. From about 1950 Hall earned a living from his wit and his pen, working primarily as a journalist. He wrote books as well, including a popular humorous memoir of his spy years, You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger (1957). Hall also turned to his espionage career for inspiration when he wrote the spy novel 19 (1970). His other writings include All My Pretty Ones (1959), a novel about the fashion industry.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Hall, Roger, You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1957.

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, August 4, 2008, p. B7.

New York Times, July 28, 2008, p. A17.