He is survived by his son, David, of New York, and his daughter Jennifer and her husband Eric Hu of Hawai Kai, Hawaii. Stacy Gould is his Goddaughter.
Hal was married to his beloeve and best friend Phyllis Bernstein of Norwich for over fifty-three years. She predeceased him in August, 2009. He is also survived by his brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Stephen and Barbara Berns of West Hartford, his niece, Attorney Debra Berns of Minneapolis, Minnesota, his nephew Mark Berns, his wife Sol, and their daughters Nicole and Gabrielle Berns of Avon, Connecticut, and his niece Karen Whipple and her husband Richard, and their daughters Ashley and Brittany of Gainesville, Florida. He also leaves his English cousins, Dr. Neville and Rosalind Soloff, of Milton Keynes, U.K., and their children.
When he was in high school, Hal was on the boxing team, and fought in the Golden Gloves competition. He started taking drum lessons at age ten, and began playing professionally at age sixteen. When he was seventeen, he attended the Juilliard School of Music in New York pre-college program, where he studied under Saul Goodman, the premier timpanist with the New York Philharmonic. Hal was in the Northwestern University Marching Band, and at Northwestern, he studied under Edward Metzenger, premier timpanist with the Chicago Symphony. Hal was the timpanist in a symphony orchestra, and played the drums in a dance band while in high school and college. He left college to enlist and serve in the Air Force during the Korean War, and returned to attend law school. Hal was an attorney and Registered Representative of the New York Stock Exchange when he was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis at age twenty eight. He was one of the oldest survivors of the disease. His younger sister, Jeanne Soloff Golder, mother of Karen Whipple, died at age twenty of CF. He taught at the Norwich Free Academy for twenty five years, and on the graduate level at Connecticut College for thirteen years. Hal drafted the legislation passed by the General Assembly that gave N.F.A. teachers the same rights to negotiate and due process that had been given to public school teachers. For over forty years, Hal and Phyllis traveled extensively throughout Europe, the United States including Alaska and Hawai, Canada and the Caribbean taking his medications and breathing devices wherever they went. Phyllis and Hal hiked in Glacier National park in Montana, and Waterton in Alberta, Canada, and the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. They climbed Mr. Cairngorm in Scotland, Snowdonia in Wales, hiked in the Swiss Alps, drove above the tundra line of Norway, and walked the coast of Cornwall to Land's End in the United Kingdom, which they said was their "home away from home." With their children, they spent a sabbatical year at the University of London, living in Greenwich, and both Hal and Phyllis were awarded the title of "Associate, University of London." He also took lectures on British politics at Nuffield College, Oxford University. Phyllis and Hal maintained a close relationship with their former neighbors and friends throughout the U.K. In addition, Hal earned a doctorate, a masters, and a Professional Diploma in Education. Hal served in several capacities in the Norwich City government including four charter revision commissions, and he chaired three of them. He was chair of the Codes Review Committee, and served on the Governor's Task Force for Higher Education. Hal was a member of the Democratic Town Committee, and was elected a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1972. In 2007, he was given a national award, "Hero of Hope" for his involvement with helping others with Cystic Fibrosis. Hal established an internet support group for those with CF, and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He communicated with those who have CF all over the world through the internet and Skype. Although born in Norwich, Hal grew up in North Carolina, Texas, and Tennessee, but settled with the woman and children he loved in the city he loved, Norwich, the place he always considered his "home town." interment is in the I.O.B.A. cemetery, Greenville, where Hal's wife, great grandparents, grandparents, parents, sister, great aunts and uncles, and an aunt and uncle are buried.
In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Cystic Fibrosis Research, Inc., 2672 Bayshore Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043.
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