More detail on this person: Thomas U Wall Tom Wall, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who after completing 1,000 combat missions as a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War fought valiantly to create an airport at El Toro Marine Base, died early Wednesday at Irvine Medical Center. Wall was 61, and he had been battling cancer for the last four years. A native of Washington, D.C., he enlisted in the Marines in 1966 and served for 20 years. As a former squadron commander at the old Marine Air Station in Tustin, he helped put together a helicopter test-pilot school. In the early 1980s, he developed the popular Volkslauf Mud Run, which until 1998 allowed members of the public to play Marine for the day by taking a 10-mile run and obstacle course that included wading through a 4-foot-deep, mud-filled quagmire. After retiring from the Marines, Hall, an Irvine resident, became a consultant to the engineering design firm URS Corp. in Santa Ana. He served as executive director of the Orange County Airport Alliance and as chairman of the Orange County Airport Land Use Commission. He was also a member of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority Citizens Advisory Commission. Wall was a past chairman of the Irvine Valley College Foundation and the Irvine Chamber of Commerce. He also served as a reserve officer for the Laguna Beach Police Department and a month ago was named Laguna Beach reserve police officer of the year. "Everything he touched, he was a leader and a competitor," said Jim Richie, deputy executive director of Los Angeles World Airports. "He had a charm and a personality that were infectious. You could not find a way to dislike him. "He would overwhelm you. If he found there was something you were upset with him about, he could combine his teasing wit and great sense of humor to an affectionate form of communication" that made everything OK, Ritchie said. Slight and wiry, even in his 50s, he was so fit that when he became a reserve police officer and was sent to the police training academy, he finished at the top of his class. He dealt with his illness with his customary courage and good cheer, sending an e-mail to his many friends shortly before his death that began: "Did you ever have one of those days when the mind is willing, but the body refuses to go along?" It goes on to describe his declining health and his doctor's recommendation that he get hospice care. It concludes with: "Again, morale is high on this end. Keep your spirits up and live life every day _ you have good people counting on you for love, guidance, leadership and inspiration." He is survived by two sons. Services are scheduled for 10 a.m. June 29, Fairhaven Memorial Park & Mortuary, Santa Ana. The family requests donations to the Tom Hall Scholarship Fund, Irvine Valley College Foundation, 5500 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine, CA 92618.
Burial information: Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA
This information was last updated 03/10/2021
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Date posted on this site: 03/10/2024
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