This year’s commencement exercises at the Cameron School of Business formed a sort of coda to William “Woody” Hall’s 41-year career at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. As the economics professor prepared to step out into retirement, the school asked him to give its commencement address.

“It’s the hardest thing to write,” he said in an interview several days before the event. “Nobody wants to hear it; they’re waiting for their diplomas. And this may be the largest audience I’ve ever addressed.”

Hall has addressed plenty of audiences in his career as teacher and researcher, sharing data he has collected on economic indicators for many regions of North Carolina and explaining its implications for growth or – for several years recently – decline. He has also consulted on proposed developments around southeastern North Carolina. The research he has conducted by himself or with other economists has produced findings that have helped developers and officials in the region make important decisions.

“I did an analysis of Mayfaire [Town Center] – the impact it would have and analyses of PPD’s consolidation and new residential construction in Brunswick County,” he recalled. “I did a study for the nuclear facilities in Southport. I did at least three studies of the economic impact of UNCW and economic impact studies of the motion picture industry and various downtown projects. I was part of a team that looked at the impact of the Azalea Festival. I do a lot of work for the chamber and for Wilmington Business Development.

“A lot of times these impact reports are used to support applications for incentives.”

Hall’s forecasts became a local tradition. Delivered at UNCW’s annual economic forecast event each fall and elsewhere through the years, the presentations were peppered with his trademark scatter graphs, spider graphs, bar charts, pie charts and bluntly stated prognostications. There was always the dry joke about more people arriving at Wilmington International Airport than leaving and where those extra people were going. There was the trademark rapid-fire delivery of facts and conclusions from his study of the data.

Well before Hall (shown left earlier in his career in a photo from UNCW University Archives) himself deplaned at a much-smaller ILM for his UNCW interview in 1974, he was digging for data and compiling numbers and facts. His master’s thesis at Clemson University was a regional economic analysis for which he built data sets for several multi-county economic regions in South Carolina.

As he prepared to tackle his dissertation a couple of years later, Dow Chemical and BASF proposed a petrochemical facility on the South Carolina coast. The idea was opposed by a coalition of Hilton Head developers and property owners as well as fishermen. Hall did an economic analysis for them outlining the value of environmental amenities and exploring the demand for environmental quality. That study formed the basis of his dissertation.

“In August of 1972 I still needed to finish my dissertation so I took a job as a research economist at Western Carolina University,” he said, adding that for about 15 months, he shuttled back and forth between Cullowhee and Clemson.

Thus, when Hall began his career at UNCW the following academic year, he had significant experience with research but had essentially no teaching experience. The first year was a challenge.

“I used to rehearse my lectures, and I tried to stay a week ahead of the students,” he said. “I taught a night class and then taught the same class at 8 a.m. the next day.” Often, Hall said, he didn’t sleep well in between, explaining, “It’s not easy to come down after teaching three hours a night.”

Expectations of faculty members have changed since the early 1970s, Hall said.

“Then, we were expected to teach four classes a semester – three preps [three different courses],” he said. “Now I do less teaching but I have Swain [Center for Business & Economic Services] and research expectations, which mean a lot of outreach work and local economic analyses.”

One of Hall’s primary research colleagues was fellow economics faculty member Claude Farrell. Together they conducted economic analyses, including studies of New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties until Farrell’s death in 2008.

“We built more than 100 data sets on 40 cities in North Carolina,” Hall said. “We had lots of requests for data from the mid-90s through the mid-2000s for business development because we were an objective source of information. The recession, however, slowed things dramatically.”

Looking back on four decades of classroom experience, Hall reflected on how students have changed.

“There’s more expectation of instant gratification than 10 or 20 years ago,” he said. “Interlibrary loan is too slow for them.”

Technology is partly responsible for that change, he said. Information can be accessed quickly, and Hall said he puts a great deal of course material on his class websites. The need for textbooks is much less than it was even a few years ago.

Hall said he decided to retire before he started declining. “I’ve taught the children – maybe even a few grandchildren – of my earlier students. I haven’t peaked, but I’m a heck of a lot closer to peaking than I was five or six years ago,” he said.

While he hasn’t completely charted his life in retirement, Hall has more than a few ideas.
“I’ll kick back initially, possibly accept some consulting opportunities,” he said. “I know what not to do: I would go completely nuts if I don’t keep current.”

Hall said he would also like to try his hand at writing techno-thriller and spy fiction novels in the tradition of Lee Child and Tom Clancy. He wants to see his two daughters and their families more frequently, which means trips to Charlotte and Durham. He already spends considerable time with his mother, who lives independently in Wilmington but needs companion care.

So as he mentally sifted through the recollections and experience of 41 years of teaching and data gathering, what did Hall want to share with the Cameron School graduates of 2015?
“I want to keep it on the short side, maybe 10 minutes,” he said of his talk. “I have 10 bullet points – pieces of advice, including:”

• You need good advice;
• Don’t ever give up;
• Most of you will have received three or more pre-approved credit cards. You don’t have to accept them;
• Don’t be sad [college] is over; be glad it happened.

“I’ll talk about the labor market and how much better equipped they are with a bachelor’s or master’s degree. The Pew Research Center says that most graduates are glad they went to college. I’ll close with ‘Live long and prosper’ from Star Trek,” he said. “It’s been a good run.”

Adam Jones to serve as new UNCW senior economist

When Woody Hall retires as senior economist at UNCW’s Swain Center for Business & Economic Services on June 30, Adam Jones (shown left) will step into the position.

Jones’ responsibilities, he said, will include creating forecasts and serving as an “outreach economist” on special projects or recommending others whose particular expertise makes them a good choice for a project.

Jones came to academia after an early career in economic development and business  recruitment in the Atlanta metropolitan area. When he decided to return to school for a PhD in economics, he chose the University of Georgia. There, he worked at UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, the university’s outreach arm that provides research on which government leaders can make informed decisions on change and growth.

A large part of his new role at the Swain Center, Jones said, will be answering requests for information. That will involve keeping the center’s extensive databases – many developed by Hall and his late colleague Claude Farrell – up to date and accessible.

Jones also looks forward to connecting students with community projects, such as economic impact studies, that will draw on and help develop their skills in economics research.

“There is the potential for a lot of partnerships there,” he said. “We can talk about multiplier effects all day long, but students don’t really understand that until they do it.”