BELLOWS FALLS -- Hal Candler Thompson, 84, of Griswald Drive, died Thursday, Aug. 14, 2003, at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, N.H. He was born in Savannah, Ga., the youngest son of Florrie and William E. Thompson. He was valedictorian of his high school class and was subsequently awarded a full scholarship to Harvard. Upon earning his bachelor's degree in English, he briefly taught at New York University, Columbia and City College before enlisting in the U.S. Army during World War II. It was in the Signal Corps that he was first introduced to the world of film and television. After the war, he directed summer theater where he met and married his beloved wife of 56 years, Betty Ellen Weber. Thereafter, he worked in New York City as a TV/stage producer/director, at one point operating his own theater in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. Mr. Thompson moved to Bellows Falls in 1995, where he took great satisfaction in gardening and caring for his wife. He is survived by two children, Erica and Keith, and two grandchildren, Lorraine and Owen. He will be buried next to his wife in Oak Hill Cemetery, Bellows Falls, in a graveside service, on Monday, Aug. 18, at 1 p.m. Fenton & Hennessey Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.