Dr Marshall Hall, famed Jamaican academic and business leader, dies

Dr Marshall Hall, one of Jamaica's leading academics and business leaders of the last half-century, has died.

His passing was confirmed on Tuesday morning. 

Best known in recent decades for his roles at Jamaica Producers Group, where he served as Director for 40 years and as Managing Director for 27 years, Dr Hall also had a distinguished career in academia, first in the United States and Uganda before returning to Jamaica in 1972.

Here he served first as Dean of the School of the Social Sciences faculty and head of the Department of Management Studies at The University of the West Indies.

At Jamaica Producers Group Limited, he was credited with establishing thousands of acres of large-scale modernized banana production in Jamaic and development of a "best-in-class industrialised UK distribution platform for fresh fruit."

Marshall Hall also served for a period as CEO of the light and power company, JPS, Chairman of the Jamaica Development Bank, and Chairman of National Commercial Bank and Mutual Life.

He remained engaged in academia during this period as well, serving as Chairman of the Caribbean Policy Research Institute and a member of the West Indian Commission.

He also gave public service on the Police Service Commission, Police Civilian Oversight Authority, and most recently as a Director of the Caribbean Maritime University.

Honoured

in 2010 when he was honoured with the Order of Jamaica (OJ), Dr Hall told the Jamaica Information Service that he felt "very fortunate" to have been able to serve his country in various capacities.

The Kingston college alumnus, born in Kingston in 1934, told the JIS that his childhood as a “very good” one. 

He grew up in Vineyard Town and recalled that his family stressed that education was a major priority.

“My parents instilled in us a desire for education and that was very important in our household,” he said.

He said pursuing an academic career was very natural  seemed very natural to him, but the shift to industry, agriculture and business was initially surprising. 

“But, what I found early on that the discipline that I had had in economics served me well, in terms of how one looks at problems. I have always sought to succeed. Success is very important to me,” he concluded.