Wilbur C. Hall
Wilbur Curtis Hall was a Virginia lawyer, World War I Navy veteran and Democratic politician who served in the Virginia House of Delegates before becoming the 1st chairman of the Virginia Conservation and Development Commission.
Early life and education
Hall was born to the former Annie Eliza Holiday and her husband John William Hall in a small town called Mountain Gap in Loudoun County, Virginia. Their ancestors had lived nearby for generations and the family included a younger brother, Stilson Hall. The boys were educated in a one-room schoolhouse. Hall graduated from Leesburg High School, then Washington and Lee University. He later received an LL.B. from Georgetown University Law School.Career
Hall practiced law in Loudoun and surrounding counties. During World War I he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. In 1918 voters from Loudoun and nearby Fauquier counties elected him to represent them in the Virginia House of Delegates, and re-elected him many times, although in 1924 the district split, so Hall came to represent Loudoun County and John T. Ramey represented Fauquier County to the south. Hall also participated in various local civic organizations, including the Episcopal Church, Rotary Club, Masons, Odd Fellows, Pi Gamma Mu and Phi Beta Kappa.In early 1935 Hall resigned his legislative position in order to accept an appointment by Governor George Peery to the newly reorganized Virginia Conservation Commission, the chairman of the previous entity, William E. Carson having resigned effective January 1, 1935. Banker Hayward C. Thompson succeeded to as Loudoun's state delegate. Hall served as the Commission's chairman for four years, until a new governor took office.
As Carson's successor, Hall initiated evictions of remaining elderly residents from Shenandoah National Park, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated on July 3, 1936. As of April 1940, after Hall's tenure, 19 families remained within the park boundaries, the last dying in 1979 at age 92.