Albert F. Hull
Albert F. Hull, 91, passed away Sunday in Whitefish from complications from a broken leg, just three days after his and wife Vivian’s 69th wedding anniversary. His final days were spent at home comforted by his family and hospice.
He was born May 22, 1923, on Skyles Avenue, the son of Lorin and Francis Hull. He was the youngest of four boys. At the time the lake side of town had its own small elementary school, and he had the same teacher for four years. He was interested in electronics and earned his amateur radio license while in high school.
He and two friends joined the Navy immediately after high school in 1941, six months before Pearl Harbor. All did extremely well on their boot camp exams, and all three were selected for officer training. Albert had an appointment as an alternate for the Naval Academy from congresswoman Jeannette Rankins, and was in an Annapolis technical school when he came down with tuberculosis. While recovering in the hospital, he decided there was more potential in the new field of radar as an enlisted man.
After training, he was assigned to teach other technicians stateside. But he volunteered for oversea duty, and joined a flying boat squadron in North Africa. The squadron flew anti-submarine patrols from an Atlantic base in southern Morocco.
When he was home on leave in 1944, he went on a date with former classmate, Vivian Montgomery. She was secretary for the chief dispatcher at railroad depot at the time. The ensuing romance resulted in them being engaged by the end of his 30-day leave.
In Hawaii, he finagled his way into a naval squadron flying a single-tail version of the B-24 bomber, with a radar dome replacing the belly-gun turret. The squadron went to Tinian, where he witnessed a Japanese bombing attack on the neighboring B-29 base on Saipan, and had to take cover when Tinian was targeted also. Next was Morotai, where the joke was that the enemy planes on the neighboring island didn’t have time to raise their landing gear before bombing the U.S. base.
Finally the squadron ended up in Palwan Island in the Philippine. It was there, at age 21 he was promoted to Chief Petty Officer. According to an article published in the Whitefish Pilot, it made him the youngest in the Pacific to hold the rank. Along with maintaining the radar sets, he flew enough to qualify for combat pay.
The squadron’s main mission was to check Japanese-occupied Singapore daily to make sure two damaged heavy cruisers were still in the harbor. The Japanese never had the resources to repair the ships, and one had been sunk in a frogmen attack and was actually sitting on the bottom of its anchorage.
He also received an air medal while in the Philippines. The commendation made it sound like the entire Japanese fleet had been sunk in the attack. In reality the patrol caught a group of motorized barges trying to sneak supplies down the coast to beleaguered enemy forces, he said.
Though the war ended abruptly in August, 1945, it was not until the end of the year that he returned from the Pacific. He and Vivian were married Jan. 15, 1946 in a private ceremony at her brother’s house in Whitefish.
The couple traveled to Virginia and then Long Island for his new assignment. The squadron was then sent to Puerto Rico, but Albert found himself assigned to Texas as an instructor. Liking neither Texas nor teaching, he resigned from the Navy and headed home.
Too late to enter Montana State, he attended a community college at the former Naval base in Farragut, Idaho. But his father died, and he and Vivian returned to Whitefish. After several jobs, he took up his father’s profession as a trainman on the Great Northern Railway.
He had two rules for his kids — they would not smoke, because of his struggle to kick the habit, and they would all complete college.
Albert retained his interest in electronics, and took college correspondence classes with hope of being the first to invent a variable-speed AC motor. He was also an avid reader, and his collection gave a jump start to the Flathead Valley Community College history book section when the college set up its own library on the new campus. He also passed the test for an FCC first-class radio license in his 50’s.
He doubled the size of the family house on West Third Street, and then doubled it again. He did all the work himself, from mixing the concrete for the foundation to cutting and threading the pipes for the hot-water furnace.
Albert advanced from brakeman to conductor. It was a difficult job that required going to work at any hour and considerable time away from home. But he still found time for family adventures, and fishing trips to local lakes are a special memory among his children.
He was amused that he was officially rich, ranking in the top 10 percent of incomes. Yet, he and Vivian lived frugally and invested regularly. When in 1986 he concluded he could make more money retired, he did so.
The Stumptown Historical Society acquired the Whitefish train depot, and Albert and another retired trainman maintained the building on a volunteer basis for years. He was in his 70s when his wife found out he was pricing climbing equipment with the intention of patching the roof on the three-story building. She quickly scuttled the project.
Albert and Vivian traveled throughout the West and in Alaska in their fifth-wheeler. They bicycled and cross-country skied. Well into his 90s, he was exercising five days a week. He was a life-long Republican and said he knew it would be time to pull the plug when he was no longer interested in politics.
He is survived by Vivian at the family home; by son, Richard (MSU 1970) and wife, Jennifer of Kalispell; daughter, Lauren Ball (MSU 1973) and her husband, Keith of Lolo; and daughter, Andrea Davidson (UM 1978) of Kalispell. Also surviving are grandchildren,, Scott Ball and his wife, Maeve; Kevin Ball and wife, Alyson; and great-grandchildren, Zoe, Charlotte and Ondrej.
Services are set for 11 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 22 at the First Presbyterian Church in Whitefish. In lieu of flowers, donations are requested to the Whitefish Library or Frontier Hospice.