Malcom Earle Hallowell

Malcolm Earle “Mac” Hallowell was called home on January 28, 2022. He was born in Rockland, Maine, to George and Edith (Chandler) Hallowell on July 18, 1932. Early in his life, he displayed a strong interest in all kinds of machinery (especially cars), and he was rebuilding engines before he graduated from high school in 1950. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology briefly as an apprentice machinist for the General Electric Company, and while he was there, he accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior.

That particular chapter of his career ended when he was drafted for the U.S. Army in 1952. After he was declared ineligible for service (for flat feet) a few weeks later, he made the long journey to Fairbanks, Alaska, where he found a job machining shafts for the water purifying plant at Eielson Air Force Base.

Mac was happy serving his country and working with machinery, but he really wanted to serve his Lord; in the fall of 1953, he enrolled at Emmaus Bible School in Toronto.

It was there, while training to become a missionary that he met the love of his life. Margaret Willis was a Toronto native who shared his desire to serve the Lord; they were married on May 28, 1954.

Their missionary journeys took them westward; their first son (Daniel) was born in Chicago, Illinois, and their second son (John) was born in Hermiston, Oregon. While Mac had to get jobs as a mechanic to support his growing family (Ruth, Stephen, and Mary were born in Lorneville, New Brunswick), he always worked “as onto the Lord,” using his God-given talents to glorify God. After a 3-year stint in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, with General Electric (where another son, Andrew, was born), he moved his family to Dorothy, New Jersey.

There he found a job with Wheaton Glass, designing machines to make scientific glassware (test tubes, beakers, etc.) It was there that the couple’s seventh child (Keren) was born. During his twenty-plus years at Wheaton, Mac rebuilt Volkswagen engines in his garage as a hobby. The family’s vacations were spent at a “Gospel Tent” ministry in New Brunswick, where Mac spent most of his time maintaining and repairing the “Gospel Buses” that brought children to the tent meetings.

When Mac retired in 1993, he and Margaret retired to Walla Walla, where two of his sons had taken up residence. They spent much of their time traveling and helping out in several missionary endeavors.

After Margaret passed away in 2017, Mac went to live at the Washington Odd Fellows Home assisted living center, where he enjoyed visits from his expanding family, playing bocce and bingo and singing hymns at a regular Sunday service. He is survived by his younger brother, Edward, plus six of his seven children, 31 grandchildren, and 30 great-grandchildren, most of whom live in the Walla Walla area.

Viewing and visitation will be held on Saturday, February 26, 2022, at 9:00 a.m., with the funeral service following at 10:00 a.m., at the Chapel of Herring Groseclose Funeral Home, 315 W. Alder St., Walla Walla, WA.