Stephen C. Hale Jr.

STEPHEN C. HALE JR . Stephen C. Hale, Jr., of Vero Beach, Florida and Center Harbor, New Hampshire, died peacefully at home of cancer with his family by his side on November 13. 2005. He was 86. Prior to his retirement, he was Chairman of the Board of Hale Indian River Groves, the company which he founded with his wife, Polly in 1947. The well known direct marketing company of citrus and gourmet gifts is headquartered in Wabasso, Florida. Mr. Hale was born on January 4, 1919 in Rochester, New York, the son of Stephen C. Hale and Georgia Law Hale. His family moved to Atlanta, Georgia where he attended high school, graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1940 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and became a commissioned naval officer. A World War II Lieutenant and hero, he served with distinction in the Navy on several destroyers including the USS Stringham and the USS Cowie, receiving a letter of commendation from the Secretary of the Navy when as the Commanding Officer he dove over the side of his destroyer and rescued a wounded Army man whose plane had crashed during an intense enemy night air raid off Scoglitti, Sicily in 1943. He married Mary (Polly) Chilton Dexter in 1942 in Boston, and in 1946 they moved with the first two of their four children to Vero Beach, Florida from California where he was then stationed. He had been inspired by visits to Vero Beach with his family as a high school student, where he first became fascinated with citrus and dreamed of starting his own mail order citrus business there one day. He once told a favorite aunt that he wanted to "raise his family in the sunshine." and it became one of many dreams that he realized during his lifetime. Mr. Hale was an outgoing man who made numerous life long friends in the community that he so loved. Upon moving to Vero Beach, he began working for a citrus grower who was starting a gift fruit division. He established friendships with several of the area's citrus pioneers which was and is today a fraternity of sorts. He established Hale Groves in 1947 and in 1952 purchased a mail order business in Wabasso that Hubert Graves started in around 1950. He then began to expand his gift fruit shipping business, which grew to become the largest direct marketer of citrus gifts in the world, as it is today. Besides the love that he had for his family and friends his interests included tennis, golf and the great outdoors, and he instilled in his young children a love of sports, animals and the beauty of nature, as well as a genuine respect for other people and humanity in general. He was a loving and generous father who spent memorable summers with his family at Squam Lake in New Hampshire. Each summer he and Polly would pack their kids into a station wagon and drive from Florida to New Hampshire to the family's summer cottage, a trip that then took about five days. During three summers in the early 1960's he took the family on camping trips out west and throughout Canada and the northeast with the goals of sparking an interest in his children for the beauty and diversity of other people and places, and of building their character by "roughing it" in old army tents and cooking freshly caught trout over camp fires. He and his young family and friends enjoyed frequent tennis matches and early sunset picnics at what was then a largely unpopulated beach when Ocean Drive was a narrow sandy road inhabited mainly by wildlife. Mr. Hale became a member of Trinity Episcopal Church when it was a small chapel in the 1940's, and he was a former member of the vestry. He supported and was active in numerous business, civic and charitable affairs and organizations, including the Rotary Club, Kiwanis Club, Chamber of Commerce, Indian River Citrus League, Florida Gift Fruit Shippers Association, Direct Marketing Association, Indian River Humane Society, McKee Botanical Garden, the Indian River Land Trust, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Vero Beach Museum of Art, Squam Lakes Conservation Society, Nature Center at Squam Lake and the Squam Lakes Association. He was honored in 2002 with the Entrepreneur of the Year award from Georgia Tech and was inducted into Tech's Engineering Hall of Fame. He was a member of the John's Island Club and the Bald Peak Country Club. He is survived by his beloved wife of 63 years, Mary (Polly) D. Hale, by their four children, Marianne D. Farrow of Badby, England, Stephen C. Hale III of Vero Beach, Susan B. Hale of Vero Beach, A. Dexter Hale of Great Falls, Montana, and by seven grandchildren. He was predeceased by his sister, Ruth H. Ayers of Vero Beach. A memorial service will be held at Trinity Episcopal Church on Saturday, November 19th, at 1 :30 p.m. Arrangements are under the direction of Strunk Funeral Home, Vero Beach. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in his memory to the Humane Society of Vero Beach, the McKee Botanical Garden and the VNA Hospice Foundation.