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TOOELE - The "Tooele boy" made good.
So good, in fact, that Tooele County's brand-new courthouse was christened Monday for Gordon R. Hall.
Hall is a one of kind, having served as chief justice of the Utah Supreme Court longer than anyone in the state's history - 12 years, from 1981 to 1993.
The Gordon R. Hall Courthouse is one of a kind, too - it's the first Utah courthouse to be named after a judge.
"I was so pleased to have this happen during my lifetime," a spry Hall, 81, told a crowd of dignitaries and well-wishers at Monday's ceremonies, "so I could see it."
Hall was elected to three terms as Tooele County attorney before being appointed to Utah's 3rd District Court in 1969. In 1977, he was appointed to the Utah Supreme Court.
The esteemed jurist credited his wife with his success.
"Without Doris, none of this would have happened. I wouldn't have gone to law school. I would have been just a kid from Tooele."
A beaming Doris Hall called it a "wonderful day."
"It's well deserved," she added. "But I'm like Gordon. I had my heart in the old courthouse."
The new 57,600-square-foot courthouse cost $10.4 million and houses district, juvenile and justice courts.
It's a grand facility compared with the one it replaces - built in 1899 - but has yet to capture the spirits of times past, as Hall's old haunt had.
"The old courthouse was the focal point of everything that happened in the county," Hall recalled. "I spent so much time there, it was like a second home."
At times, the old building seemed to talk, remembered 3rd District Judge William Pitt, who spearheaded the effort to name the new courthouse for Hall.
"When someone from Tooele does well, we refer to them as a 'Tooele boy,'" Pitt explained. "We decided, by gosh, we should name this the Gordon Hall Courthouse."
"Decades from now, when people pass through the building, they will know the name Gordon Hall," Pitt said.
"The people of Tooele County are elated," he said. "The people here have come to honor you," he said referring to the 100-strong crowd.
Among other things, Hall played a pivotal role in the history of Utah's judiciary, said Christine Durham, the current chief justice of the Utah Supreme Court, who also spoke Monday. Hall was at the forefront of a movement to change the Utah Constitution to make the state's court system fully independent in 1984.
"The naming of this building provides a unique coming together of history and opportunity," Durham said. "Chief Justice Hall presided over the most significant series of events in creating the independent Utah judicial system."
For the thoughtful jurist, it's almost too much to believe.
"When I was a young boy, I never thought I'd even be a lawyer," he recalled wistfully. "When I went to college, they said, 'What do you want to be?' I said, 'I don't know. A lawyer sounds good.'"