Despite his retirement, Hall vows he’ll work

By BRUCE HOTCHKISS
Senior Editor

John E. Hall, who stepped down on July 1 as Kent County Extension ag agent after 30 years of service, says he does not plan to stop working anytime soon.
“In today’s environment, there is no such thing as retirement,” he said. “I will just change jobs. “
In that regard, he says, he hopes in some capacity “to continue teaching, coaching, and trying to make a difference.”
As for teaching, he said, “there is nothing more challenging and rewarding that trying to engage a person and help them.”
And the big challenge in that area, he continued, is making people aware of the importance of farming in their lives — socially, culturally and economically.
How about coaching?
“I have always enjoyed team building and getting people to work together,” Hall said. “Watching teams grow and develop is very special.”
Hall’s past efforts to “make a difference” are best reflected in the Chesapeake Fields program which he launched and nurtured, bringing farmers together who were willing to take a gamble on growing crops for a niche markets which Hall helped to locate.
That program, he said “will always be very near and dear to me. In today’s world, we must continually strive to find a unique niche.
“We have a huge market place available if we can figure out how to capture it.”
No sooner had Hall shed the responsibilities of directing the Kent County Extension office as senior agent, than he stepped into his first post-retirement opportunity, accepting an invitation to write the weekly grain marketing column for this newspaper.
So what of the non-work, non-employment side of his life?
“My small sheep flock will be my release and challenge with nature,” Hall said. “Breeding the perfect club lamb and watching children take the lambs and develop a winner is very rewarding.”
Then there’s the new boat.
“My boat has been my second chance to spend time with my kids, he said. “My challenge now is to learn how to fish the Bay. I want to learn how to go ‘catchin.’”
Hall, who received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Illinois, was co-manager of a dairy farm near Chestertown and an official Holstein classifier before joining Extension in l980 as an associate area agent in Queen Anne’s and Kent counties.
Along his career path, he was also, at one time, an area dairy and livestock agent and an ag agent simultaneously in Kent, Queen and Talbot.
He was named senior agent in Kent County and associate professor in 1991, county Extension director in Kent in 1993 and principal agent in Kent in 2008.