[4] Hall was the first Vanderbilt player ever named an Academic All-American and graduated magna cum laude with a degree in chemical engineering in 1955.
[5] By 1966, Hall had risen to general refinery superintendent, and later that year, at 33, he was elected the company's youngest-ever vice president.
Seeking other revenue streams, Hall's predecessor, Orin E. Atkins, had led the company to acquire U.S. Filter Corporation (heavy manufacturing) and Integon Insurance in 1980.
The strategy had not worked: The acquisitions were too far afield from the company's knowledge base and expertise, and the U.S. economy entered a downturn that hurt both the insurance and heavy equipment industries.
[18][19] By 1984 it was clear that action was needed, so Hall introduced a new strategy focusing on core businesses and moved to divest both U.S. Filter and Integon.
[22] Between 1985 and his retirement in 1996, Hall steered Ashland on a steady course designed to stabilize earnings from refining and marketing, increase profits from related, non-refining businesses and maintain a strong financial position.
In 1983 the Securities and Exchange Commission announced an investigation into questionable payments related to crude oil purchases from Oman made prior to Hall's election as chairman.
[18] Moreover, to ward off potential future violations, Hall had ordered the development of both a Code of Business Conduct and a preventive law program very soon after he became chairman.
[18] Two years later, Ashland faced an existential threat when the Belzberg family of Canada initiated a hostile takeover.
Hall and his team called on the assistance of investment bankers, inside and outside legal counsel and Kentucky lawmakers who just happened to be in session.
The company beat the Belzbergs to the news media, and the Kentucky legislature, eager to help the state's largest corporation, enacted an anti-takeover law in a matter of days.
"[32] On January 2, 1988, a 4-million-gallon storage tank at Ashland's Floreffe, Pa., collapsed, sending diesel fuel gushing over the sides of the surrounding containment dike in waves.
[36] It became clear that the tank was not new but reconstructed of used, 40-year-old steel, that an alternative testing method had been used to confirm its storage worthiness, and that the construction permit had been applied for but received only verbal permission.
He gave a news conference apologizing for the incident, taking responsibility, and promising that Ashland would pay for all cleanup costs and reimburse communities for expenses incurred because of water shortages.
[42] In November 1989 Ashland agreed to pay $30 million to settle 20 class-action civil suits filed as a result of the spill.
[43] But Hall's deft handling of the crisis won praise from financial analysts just days after the spill and from other observers as time went on.
Hall has served as a director of GrafTech International Ltd.; CSX Corp.; LaRoche Industries Inc.; Reynolds Metals Company; Humana Inc.; Canada Life; JP Morgan (Bank One Corporation;) Arch Coal, Inc.; and USEC Inc.[6] He served as the first chairman of Arch Coal Company and retired from that position in December 1998.
[57] Under the aegis of the BRT, he co-founded The Partnership for Kentucky School Reform, which rallied corporate support for changes in primary education.
[9] Under Hall's leadership, Ashland devoted its entire corporate advertising budget to the cause of education with a goal of improving public schools in Kentucky and West Virginia.
The American Institute of Chemical Engineers honored him in 1987 with the Fuels and Petrochemical Division Award for management of petroleum operations.
[4] He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Eastern Kentucky University in 1990 and became a member of the advisory board of The Oil Daily that year.
[62] He earned honorary membership in the Kentucky Association of School Administrators in 1990 and became a trustee of the Committee for Economic Development, a national non-profit organization in 1991.
[63] He was inducted into the Marshall University Business Hall of Fame in 1995 and was chosen to serve on the Kentucky Governor's Special Advisory Committee on Education in 1996.
Young Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015 from Commerce Lexington, and in 2016 KET produced a documentary about John Hall's life, entitled "The Kentucky Commodore.
That year Ashland also received the President's Citation for Private Sector Initiatives for the company's dropout prevention efforts.
The U.S. Department of the Interior recognized Ashland in 1993 for starting the Ohio River Sweep, an annual riverbank clean-up program begun under Hall's leadership that continues to the present.