HOPE – Yerger Middle School Principal Mike Radebaugh told some 50 educators, family and friends of retiring YMS Career Development Teacher Henry Hale that Hale’s tenure at YMS was part of a legacy that has made the campus “a special place in the history of the Hope Public Schools.”
\r\nA native of Fulton who attended school through the sixth grade at Fulton Elementary School and graduated from Yerger High School, Hale took a degree in animal sciences from Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas, intending to work in research in Beckville, Md., in 1971.\r\n
\r\nIt was that background at Fulton Elementary School and particularly the all-Black Yerger High School that made Hale’s return to YMS part of its unique legacy, Radebaugh noted.\r\n
\r\n“This place has a rich history; it is a family and Yerger has been blessed,” he said. “Mister Hale has been part of all three of those things.”\r\n
\r\nHale taught his own children and his granddaughter, who along with two students from his first class, HPS Superintendent’s Administrative Assistant Eva Scott and Yerger Counselor Joyce Smith, as well as Hope Bobcat Head Coach Phillip Turner, attended the May 26 reception in his honor.\r\n
\r\n“I taught so many it’s hard to make a list,” Hale quipped.\r\n
\r\nHe said he and his wife intend to travel the country from coast to coast.\r\n
Yerger Middle School Career Development teacher Henry Hale, left, capped 51 years of service in public education this year, largely in the Hope Public Schools, as Hale officially retired from teaching in May. HPS Superintendent Dr. Jonathan Crossley presented Hale with a plaque from the HPS to mark his tenure, which included some folks in the room as his students. – Ken McLemore/Hope Public Schools\r\n
