H. Brian Hall

Born in Miniota, Manitoba, Canada, Brian's early years saw him move about Canada with his parents and older brother, living in different provinces and with extended family, playing sports and making friends wherever he went, leading to a lifelong interest in travel, genealogy, sports, and service. In 1955 he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and spent summers training while attending McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and then McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Following graduation from McGill in 1959 with a degree in Architecture, he served in the RCAF 404 Squadron in Greenwood, Nova Scotia for three years as a navigator (flight cadet) to pay for his schooling. His interest in aviation (and sports cars) peaked here and persisted his entire life.

In 1962 after his father passed away while working at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Brian joined his mother in Santa Maria, California. Here he met the love of his life, Shirley, a fellow Canadian. They married in 1968 and raised their three children in Santa Maria and Orcutt. Brian and Shirley were active members of the Santa Maria community until 2019 when they moved to the Houston area to be closer to daughter Michele and family for health reasons.

Brian began his career as an architect at Kerr & Associates, Architects, which later became Kerr Hall Hurley Deutsch, and then Hall Hurley Deutsch A.I.A, a mainstay on Main Street in Santa Maria for thirty years. He was involved with the design of numerous buildings in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties, notably the terminal at Santa Maria Airport, the PCPA theatre at Allan Hancock College, the Bank of Santa Maria headquarters building at the intersection of S. Broadway and S. Miller, and numerous schools in the Santa Maria-Bonita and Lucia Mar Unified school districts.

Brian strongly believed in community service, both as a means to serve and build his community as well as a great way to make friends, and with the support of Shirley, he volunteered his time generously as demonstrated by his 50+ years of service in Kiwanis and other endeavors. In 1975, he and other community leaders founded SMOOTH, the Santa Maria Organization Of Transportation Helpers, to provide transportation services to seniors who lacked the means to get around the community. He contributed to the establishment of Santa Maria Valley Beautiful and the Santa Maria Museum of Flight, and worked with other volunteers on many additional projects in the Santa Maria area. In later years, he and Shirley together volunteered their time to the OASIS Center in Orcutt and were awarded the 2015 Hero’s Award for years of service to the Santa Maria Valley senior community. Brian was grateful for this recognition for Shirley’s sake and reflected on the award often during his final years in Houston. Brian was also an active member of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, serving as an usher most weekends after retirement until his move to Houston.

Brian was hard working, honest, and made friends easily. He enjoyed golfing, BBQing Santa Maria Style tri-tip in the backyard, making waffles and pancakes for his family, a good glass of wine (preferably Central Coast in origin), rooting for the L.A. Dodgers and the L.A. Kings, spending time with friends, listening to jazz, and traveling with his wife and family in Canada, Europe, and throughout the United States. Many of these travels in the western U.S. and Canada were conducted in the family camper which was funded by Brian, as a new father, trading in his beloved Porsche! Upon moving to Houston, Brian remained loyal to his sports teams and particularly enjoyed wearing his numerous Dodgers golf-shirts regularly much to the chagrin of the numerous Astros fans in his retirement community. He proudly displayed a trophy in his apartment awarded to him by his neighbors for the “Ugliest Christmas Sweater,” secured of course by his favorite Dodgers’ Championship sweatshirt. As his health declined, his kind nature and characteristic dry sense of humor continued to shine through, winning him a place in his caregivers’ hearts. At his 90th birthday celebration, he hammed it up by booing and signaling thumbs-down while ‘Happy Birthday’ was being sung to him by his neighbors, all the while enjoying the limelight.

He was preceded in death by his father William Horace, older brother William Ernest, mother Edith Elizabeth, and his beloved wife Shirley Ann. He is survived by his children Patrick (Dorothy), Jim (Jacki), and Michele (Temo) and grandsons Ben and Gabriel.

Those who knew Brian will miss him dearly. To quote from one of his favorite poems, which he kept a copy of near his bed all his life:

“I cannot rest from travel: I will drink life to the lees….

I am part of all that I have met;

Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough

Gleams that untravelled world….

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,

To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!”

• Ulysses, Alfred Lord Tennyson

A celebration of Brian’s life will take place on Saturday, October 10, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Santa Maria, CA. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to OASIS (oasisorcutt.org) or the Santa Maria Valley YMCA (smvymca.org).