Frank Hale

Though Frank W. Hale, Jr. PhD was born in Kansas City, Missouri he spent his elementary and high school days in Topeka, Kansas, graduating from Topeka High School. After high school, Hale studied at the University of Nebraska, where he graduated with a BA and MA in communication, political science and English in 1950 and '51. His pursuit for higher education took him to The Ohio State University where he received a PhD in communication and political science in 1955. A postdoctoral fellowship in English Literature led him overseas to the University of London in 1960.

Much more than receiving a high-quality education, Hale has endeavored to provide such education to his students throughout his years as a professor. He has held full professorships at Central State University in Ohio, Oakwood College in Alabama, and The Ohio State University. He has also taught at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Potomac University (currently the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary and School of Graduate Studies at Andrews University). From 1966 to 1971, Hale served as president of Oakwood College, and then found his way back to The Ohio State University where he would spend the next seven years as associate dean and chair of the Fellowship Committee of the Graduate School. In 1978, Hale became vice provost for minority affairs at The Ohio State University, a position he held until his retirement in 1988. Hale then served from 1989-1992 as executive assistant to the president of Kenyon College, and was appointed as a distinguished university representative and consultant at The Ohio State University from 1999-2005.

Hale has served on many boards, including the United Negro College Fund, Loma Linda University, Oakwood College, Columbia Union College, the Advisory Board of the College of William and Mary and several others. He has received numerous awards and citations, which include the Frederick Douglass Patterson Award and the United Negro College Fund's highest award. He has also received honorary degrees from Wilberforce University, Shaw University, Capitol University, University of Nebraska, and LaSierra University. Hale has written more than fifty articles and several books.

Currently a professor emeritus, during his tenure at Ohio State University Hale founded the Graduate and Professional Schools Visitation Days Program and the undergraduate Minority Scholars Program, as well as the Ohio State Mu Xi Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Mu Honor Society. Through his work, approximately $15 million in graduate fellowship awards was granted to nearly 1,200 minority students. It is this work that led Ohio State to honor Hale by naming the Frank W. Hale, Jr. Black Cultural Center, as well as deeming the building in which it is housed Hale Hall.

Dr. Hale is married to Mignon Scott Hale and is an active member of the Ephesus Seventh-day Adventist Church in Columbus, Ohio. Hale was chair of the Layman's Leadership Conference, a civil rights lay organization in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which was active in spearheading the crusade for the rights of blacks within the church in the early 1960s.

For his life-long commitment to higher education and civil rights, the faculty of Andrews University are pleased to present Frank W. Hale, Jr. as a candidate for the degree Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.