David Hall earned the BS in journalism (1965) and the MA in economics from UT. Under his leadership as editor and senior vice president, the Denver Post received the Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service in 1986 for a seven-month series of stories, which revealed that most missing children are not kidnap victims.
A native of Lebanon, Tennessee, David Hall began working for the Nashville Tennessean the day following his high school graduation. His career included stops at the Chicago Daily News and Chicago Sun-Times, where he served as assistant managing editor; the Pioneer Press and the Dispatch in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he was managing editor and executive editor; and the Denver Post as editor and senior vice president (1984–88). Hall was editor of the Bergen Record in New Jersey from 1988 to 1992 before becoming editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. In 2001 he was appointed the first Eugene S. Pulliam Visiting Professor of Journalism at Depauw University.