Rita Elizabeth Hall

Philadelphia, she was a homemaker and avid diver and swimmer into her 80s.

Rita grew up in Philadelphia. After World War II broke out, she enlisted in the Navy

WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). She received radioman

training at Miami University in Oxford, OH. She was assigned duty in Washington, D.C.

After the war, she moved to Chicago, where she lived for 25 years. She married George

Hall in 1949 and they raised four children. In 1972 the family moved to Hawaii.

Rita found her niche in SCUBA diving and upon certification took to the oceans. She

dove pretty much every dive site around the world and made many lifetime friends in the

diving world. She and George also traveled the world on land and had visited all seven

continents.

She was a true animal lover. She “raised” many cats and volunteered at the Honolulu

Aquarium, where she trained the Monk Seals.

Rita is survived by son Jeff (Ann Cassel) and daughter Kimm (Jeff) Bates; grandchildren,

Rhiannon Nevarez, Rhea Hall, Kelsey Bates, Tim Bates and Melanie Bates; great-

grandchildren, Joshua Hall, Isaac Nevarez and Cain Nevarez, and many nieces and

nephews. She was predeceased by two sons, Steve in February 1971 and Craig in June

2013, and her brother Harry Dever in 1980.

Military services and burial will be Tuesday, July 16, at 3 p.m. at the National Cemetery

of the Pacific (Punchbowl) in Honolulu.