Rodney Jay Hall

Rodney Jay Hall, 40, died Wednesday, Feb. 6 in Atlanta. Mr. Hall graduated from Benedictine Military School and from The University of Georgia with a B. S. in Computer Science. He was employed by Savannah Electric and Power Company. He was a member of Home Builders Association of Savannah and was an avid fisherman.

Survivors: wife, Donna Hughes Hall of Savannah; daughter, Ashley Lauren Hall of Savannah; parents, Mr. and Mrs. Edwin R. Hall of Macon; brother and sister-in-law, Gene and Nancy Hall of Charlotte, NC; sister, Jane Hall Beard of Savannah; sister and brother-in-law, Sherry and Terry Castles of Macon;sister, Roxanne Kay Hall of Savannah; father-in-law,
Howard Hughes of Savannah; brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Michael and Cindy Rochefort of Savannah and several nieces and nephews.

Visitation: 6:00-8:00 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10 at Fox & Weeks Funeral Directors, Hodgson Chapel. Funeral: 11:00 a. m. Monday, Feb. 11 at Isle of Hope Baptist Church. Pallbearers: Dale Holloway, George Mack, Pat Farrell, Jack Robertson, Ken Minglesdorff, Marvin Metzger, Shannon Summerlin,Tony Buttimer, Jimmy Crumley, Rich Saunders,David Cherry, Randy Stone, Chuck Moore and Charlie Spillane.

Remembrances: Benedictine Military School,
6502 Seawright Drive, Savannah, GA 31406.
Fox & Weeks Funeral Directors Hodgson Chapel

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A TIME FOR GRIEF & PRAYER

SAVANNAH'S CLOSE-KNIT group of homebuilders was shocked and saddened Wednesday when a private airplane carrying four of their own crashed just outside of Atlanta. There were no survivors.Investigators will try to determine what went wrong when the single-engine, six-seat Piper PA-32 took off from Peachtree-DeKalb Airport shortly after 2 p.m. That will take time. The grieving, however, began immediately.

Aboard the aircraft when it went down in rainy,chill weather were its owner, C.A. "Tony" Griffin, 38; Bobby Reed Jr.,46; Mark W. Neville, 43;and Rodney J. Hall,40. Mr. Griffin and Mr.Reed were builders. Mr.Neville and Mr.
Hall were residential marketing reps for Savannah Electric and worked with builders almost exclusively.All four men were known as hard-working people who were active in their professions. Indeed, the reason they were in Atlanta this week was to attend the Georgia Homebuilders Association convention.But more important than what they did was who they touched during their lives, which ended too abruptly in a wooded area off I-85. Each had families, friends and co-workers who will miss them.The crash ripped a hole in many hearts, young and old Those who are suffering from this terrible loss deserve the community's sympathy and prayers.

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'They were ready to go home'

Federal authorities looking into why single-engine plane crashed Wednesday near Atlanta, killing four Savannah-area
businessmen.They just wanted to go home.When four Savannah businessmen checked out of an Atlanta hotel Wednesday and headed to Peachtree-DeKalb Airport, they didn't seem concerned about the cold rain, friends said. The state Home Builder's Association meeting and legislative reception the day before had gone well. Builders Clyde Anthony Griffin and Bobby Reed Jr., as well as Savannah Electric residential marketing reps Mark Neville and Rodney Hall stuck with their initial plan to leave
Wednesday for Savannah -- despite the FAA's warnings about icing conditions and moderate turbulence in Atlanta.The men chatted about plans for next week. Reed talked of
having a Lowcountry Boil, said Savannah homebuilder Hector Lopez."They were ready to go home," Lopez said."It was ugly weather, but none of the four seemed concerned. I told them to have a safetrip." Griffin, a licensed pilot since March, had obtained his instrument rating in December -- allowing him to pilot his six-seat plane in poor weather, his family said.Minutes after taking off about 2:15 p.m., the single-engine Piper PA-32 crashed near Interstate 85 at the Chamblee-Tucker exit outside
Atlanta. Federal aviation authorities areinvestigating. All four on board were killed.

Clyde Anthony "Tony" Griffin, 38. When Griffin showed up at the Savannah Home Builders Association with his air mattress last week, friends weren't surprised. They
were used to his devotion. Griffin, Reed and other builders planned to spend the night, grilling Boston Butts for a fund raiser. Griffin set up the mattress in the office and made it through the night. "You know guys, give them a grill and a beer and they're happy," said Cindi
Billac, executive assistant of the association. "He was always looking for ways to do things to better the association." Griffin also was fixture at Tybee Island's beach bum parade and on his Jet Ski in the water.
Typically, his two daughters and wife, Rhonda, were not far behind. Devoted to his family, Griffin lived the good life in a house he built on Skidaway Island. Often he took afternoons off from building high-end homes to perfect his
new love -- flying.

Rodney J. Hall, 40
Hall's first wife taught him a lesson early about
mortality. Her death at 26 of lung cancer killed part of him. The hometown sweethearts -- he at Benedictine and she at St. Vincent's -- dated through University of Georgia. After they married, the cancer hit on the same day as Hurricane Hugo. She died weeks later."We weren't used to somebody our age dying," said his childhood friend Charles Seiler. "It took him a long time to get over." Years later, Hall met Donna through his job at Savannah Electric. "She saved his life," said Shannon Summerlin, who grew up with Hall. They married and had a daughter. Hall started living again, blasting down the water near Burnside Island in his Boston Whaler full of fishing
buddies. Hall's friends from the old days and his current life merged last year at his 40th birthday party. The old lively Rodney Hall was back. "His older friends are very grateful for his wife, because he wouldn't be the person he was if he hadn't met Donna," Summerlin said.

Mark W. Neville, 43
Folks at St. Paul Lutheran Church needed Neville on Wednesday night. He had planned to attend the first meeting in the church's search for a new pastor after the former one resigned. But slowly, throughout the regular weekly church supper, news spread about the plane crash. "It wasn't a happy supper," Carl Oelschig, president of the church council. "People would walk in and lose their appetites." Neville's wife, Evey, and three sons had lost him. And the church had lost another leader.
As chair of the personnel committee, Neville had a big job ahead: finding a new pastor. On a deer-hunting trip with his sons, he left early to go to the church to start the pastor search. More than once a week, he drove to the
church in Savannah from his home in Richmond Hill. "Mark was one of our more outstanding success stories," Oelschig said. "He is one of these guys you cannot replace."

Bobby Reed Jr., 46
Bobby Reed Jr. built homes like he played the piano.He taught himself both crafts. He could hear a song, any song, and play it back. Likewise, Reed watched his grandfather, then his father, create structures by hand. About 10 years ago, Reed, too, decided to build. And he did, without any formal training. His brother, Rocky, has a daily reminder of Reed. He lives in a home built by him in The Landings After Rocky Reed learned his oldest brother had died, he walked through the home, soaking in every detail. "I remember going through my final touch ups with him," Rocky Reed said. "He didn't cut any corners." Reed spent his childhood on Shipyard Road, shrimping and crabbingin Moon River with his three siblings. He played in bands from when he was 16 until his 20s. Reed grew up and fell in love with Janet Hodges. The two stayed together on and off for some 25 years. She and the rest of his family were on Reed's mind when he called his mother, Carolyn, from the Savannah airport this week before flying to Atlanta. His family wonders now if he was as fearful of the flights as they were."We are a family of worrywarts" said Reed's sister, Keelie. "We would have rather him driven".