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ATTENDING M. U. meant that he could join a college fraternity. With a year's residence in Co' lumbia during which to look the fraternities over, the banker's son from Weston decided to join Phi Gamma Delta. He wrote his father about it, and the judge replied: "I'm glad, son. I am a Phi Gamma Delta myself." The elder Hall, who came from Front Royal, Virginia, had graduated from Roanoke College in Virginia and joined the fraternity there.
The fact that Ray became a "Fiji" began a tradition in the fraternity, because four of the younger Hall brothers later became Phi Gams, too: Warren, who manages the Hall orchards, farms and tobacco warehouses at Weston; the late Elmer Hall, who died in April, in Kansas City; Glenn, who is president of the First National Bank of Birmingham, Alabama; and David, who is a merchant in Weston.
Of Ray's two other brothers, Charles is treasurer of the Price Candy Company in Kansas City; and Marshall manages the Columbian Hog 6? Cattle Powder Company farms out of Hiawatha, Kansas. The sister, Mrs. Reeta Hall Brill, lives in Weston.
At the University of Missouri, Ray took his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1913, and his Bachelor of Laws in 1915. He has always been a patient, courteous, conservative person, thorough in his studies and in his work. These qualities attracted the attention of Judge John D. Lawson, Dean of the M. U. School of Law, who depended upon Ray to teach his class in Contract Law on days when the professor was forced to be absent.
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At this time, Dean Lawson was writing his books on 'American State Trials," condensing the text of famous trials held in every state of the Union. He employed Ray to assist. Ray could do it, not only because he was a law student, but because in high school he had mastered shqrthand and the touch system of typing. Ray still remembers the typewriter keyboard; and today can type a letter or a speech blindfolded!
During summer vacations from college, Ray worked on the farm and in the family bank at Weston, except for one summer spent selling books from door to door in Minnesota. In the little Minnesota towns he found selling a book for $13 tough going. Three weeks without a single sale! A friend in the crew, Lester Wyckoff, advised him to try the farmers — so the next day Ray took to the country lanes. Perhaps it was because he felt more at ease on the farms, or perhaps it was because the farmers recognized him as one of their own people — but that first day in the country he made five sales, and during the summer he earned $250 in commissions. In those days, that was money!
Al Hillix recalls that when Ray was a senior at M. U, Al and eight other boys from Weston, accompanied by their fathers, all arrived in Columbia by train to enroll the boys in the University. Quite a group — eighteen people in all, carrying suitcases and trudging along Columbia's tree-shaded streets, gawking at the sights. Ray met them at the station; helped them all find quarters in rooming houses; showed the boys where and how to enroll. "That's how