Jeanne Lynn Hall loved autumn.
In her academic world, the season meant new promise, a new beginning, ‘a fresh crop of interested, talented students’ she could help and support, her sister Cheryl Lindsay said.
‘She just really loved being able to get people to look at things from a different perspective,’ said Kathy Gariepy, Hall’s other sister. ‘She liked so many different cultures and different people. She always wanted people to look at the other side of things, look at things from another viewpoint. …
‘She just really wanted people to care about each other and think about … being sensitive to people of any religion, any race — she just loved everybody,’ Gariepy went on.
Hall, 53, died unexpectedly Dec. 23 at Mount Nittany Medical Center. A 20-year faculty member in the Penn State College of Communications, she was an associate professor in the Department of Film-Video and Media Studies.
Her family had expected Hall to arrive home in her native Michigan on Christmas Day, loved ones said. Devastated by her sudden passing, they talked about her as a free spirit and generous soul who championed the underdog and loved life with perseverance and passion.
‘Some people march to the beat of a different drummer,’ said Hall’s father, Clark Hall. ‘But she was the drummer.’
One of six siblings, Jeanne Hall ‘couldn’t say no to anyone,’ he said. ‘ … She seemed in tune with those who were more apt to be ridiculed or shortchanged. She had a lot of love to give.’
A graduate of West Bloomfield High School in Michigan, Hall went on to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Michigan. She later completed a doctorate in film studies at the University of Wisconsin and taught at the Ohio University School of Film for three years.
By 1991, she had arrived at Penn State, recruited as the university strengthened its presence in the film realm, family members recalled.
The medium captured Hall’s imagination since her youth, when she and her sister Cheryl watched old movies as they babysat, the relatives said.
‘She was attracted to lighting, acting, music, screenplay, how it all worked together to create this image that was so engaging to so many people,’ Cheryl Lindsay said.
At Penn State, she said, her sister melded that attraction with sharp analyses, encouraging students to ask: ‘Where does the film want to take you? What does it make you want to think … and explore in your own mind?’
Dorn Hetzel, a longtime leader in the Penn State film program, worked with Hall since her arrival at the university. He described her as a versatile faculty member, able teach both small graduate seminars and larger, general-education courses for undergraduates.
‘If you spoke to the students in either of those categories, almost to a one they would speak about her warmth and her willingness to spend long hours with them, helping through problems or difficulties they had,’ Hetzel said. ‘Her sense of what an older person could be to young people was embedded in the way she approached the subject matter and in her concern for the students as individuals.’
Hall, a frequent mentor, also was centered on ‘growing (students’) perspectives both in terms of media and in terms of their own lives,’ Hetzel said. A regular contributor to film journals, she helped guide students to consider ‘conscious and unconscious manipulation going on in … the media,’ he said.
Faculty-member evaluations written by recent students underscore the point.
‘There were discussions in every class that directly affected the way I conduct my life and make decisions on a daily basis,’ one student wrote.
Another commented: ‘Jeanne was easily the most enthusiastic and relatable professor I have ever had. She’s an incredible instructor who actually gets most of her students to think and not just sit by as she runs through her notes.’
Her enthusiasm flowed in equal measure for her family, in which she was a leader, her relatives said. A 50th-anniversary family video celebrating her parents became a classroom staple, shown to all of Hall’s Penn State students.
‘I really do think she was inspired by her family and was so close to her mom and dad,’ Gariepy said. ‘She got such a kick out of sharing that video with her students. … You have to give my mom and dad a lot of credit: They gave us all such a good, loving home.’
While her sister had no children of her own, Gariepy said, she adored her 14 nieces and nephews and was close to two children fathered by Ron Bettig, Hall’s former husband and a fellow Penn State faculty member. (He and Hall divorced late in 2011.)
In fact, Gariepy said, the last time Hall returned home to Michigan was in June, when one of her nephews got married.
‘She was the fun aunt,’ Gariepy said. ‘She would always bring Penn State sweatshirts home for everybody. They loved that.’
Memorial arrangements for Hall have yet to be announced, but relatives said they expect services will be held both in State College and in Michigan. In addition to her nieces, nephews, father and sisters, Hall is survived by her mother, Joyce Hall; three brothers, Mark Hall, Tom Hall and Jimmy Hall; and multiple siblings-in-law.
‘We are just trying to celebrate the wonderful person that we know she was: a kind, gentle spirit,’ Joyce Hall said.
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