Hall Daily’s retirement

Hall Daily, director of government relations, has announced his intention to retire from Caltech during Autumn Quarter 2017. Since 1987, Hall has set the bar as the Institute's principal for local, regional, state and federal government relations, while also serving as the primary liaison between campus and our neighbors.

A joint faculty and staff search committee, chaired by Farnaz Khadem, Caltech's chief communications officer, will lead a national search and make recommendations for Hall's successor. The committee includes faculty members Joanna Austin, professor of aerospace, Jennifer Jackson, professor of mineral physics, and Jonathan Katz, the Kay Sugahara Professor of Social Sciences and Statistics; and staff members Theresa Davis, assistant vice president for engagement and annual programs, Dave Gallagher, JPL's associate director for strategic integration, and Jennifer Lum, deputy general counsel.

Over the course of his 30-year career at Caltech, Hall skillfully established and improved the Institute's relationships with governmental offices and agencies, community groups and neighbors, higher education associations, and the general public. Immediately upon arriving at Caltech, Hall led the large-scale effort to win approval from the City of Pasadena for Caltech's 30-year campus development plan, which entitled the Institute to increase significantly its constructed space on campus. Establishing this plan has enabled our campus to grow and meet the needs of our community over the last few decades.

In his initial public relations role at Caltech, Hall co-created the CASE gold medal-winning radio program "Caltech Edition of AirTalk," a regular segment on the public radio station KPCC that featured Caltech and JPL scientists. He later represented Caltech on the AAU Council of Federal Relations, the California Council on Science & Technology's founding working group, and the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities, where he has served as treasurer of its executive committee for the past 25 years.

Hall also represented the Institute on numerous local groups, including Day One, Leadership Pasadena, Pasadena Police Activities League, El Centro de Acción Social, and the LA Cleantech Incubator. In addition, he helped start and sustain three Pasadena working groups: the emergency coordinators roundtable, Pasadena: City of Learning, and the Pasadena Water & Power large customers group. 

Before joining Caltech, Hall earned a communications degree from Stanford University, where he was the voice of radio play-by-play for varsity football and basketball games. After graduating, he worked as a part-time tennis teacher for nearly a decade and then developed a 15-year career in journalism, which included positions at The Associated Press, the San Jose Mercury-News, and the Pasadena Star-News, where he led a 55-person newsroom.

Please join me in thanking Hall for his consummate service to the Institute. We are indebted to him for his tireless efforts to connect Caltech to the broader community and to represent and champion our interests to external entities. There will be an opportunity to honor him formally as the date of his retirement approaches.