From These Roots

“There are several reasons why I teach at North Greenville… The college is small and allows individual interest and counsel for any student who will avail himself of these helps. Then there is the challenge of the small part that each instructor can have in the lives of the many hundreds of students who have passed through our school”- Dr. Wade Hale in 1968

Wade Hale was born November 29, 1915 in Anderson County, South Carolina to parents William Hale and Emma Freeman Hale. He was the tenth child of eleven born to his parents, but four of his older siblings died in infancy or childhood. His father was a farmer and musician who taught music and traveled locally singing in gospel groups. The Hale family moved to Walhalla when Dr. Hale was about 3 1/2 years old. They made Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church their new church family and eventually this is where Dr. Hale would be baptized.

Dr. Hale attended school in Walhalla, but dropped out after the 8th grade when he was about 18 years old. Three years later, likely due to a calling he felt to preach, he decided to finish his education. He attended Long Creek Academy, a Mountain Mission School of the SBC’s Home Mission Board, where he graduated with his high school diploma. In 1939, at the age of 24, Dr. Hale left his hometown to attend Mars Hill College where he graduated with an associates degree in 1941. He then went to Furman University where he graduated with his B.A. in 1943. His senior yearbook page at Furman described him as, “Good natured and jolly. He can take a joke…we hope…wants to be a preacher… dislikes parallel reading…honest….somewhat different in a pleasing sort of way.” By this time, the Hale family was attending Walhalla First Baptist Church where Dr. Hale was ordained to preach.

The same year he graduated from Furman, Dr. Hale married Elizabeth Rochester. The couple would eventually have two daughters together, Judy and Brenda. A week after their wedding, the new couple left the state for Dr. Hale to attend Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY where he graduated with a B.D. in 1947. While attending Southern Seminary, Dr. Hale served as a pastor in Kentucky.

After graduation, the Hales returned to South Carolina where Dr. Hale served as a pastor of Mountain Creek Baptist Church in Anderson County and later pastored Cateechee Baptist Church in Pickens County. In 1951, he took a position as the first fulltime pastor of Norris Baptist Church which was also in Pickens County. It was while serving at Norris Baptist Church that Dr. Hale came to North Greenville with some summer campers from his church and met Dr. Donnan. Dr. Donnan asked Dr. Hale to come teach at North Greenville, but Dr. Hale turned him down. A year later, Dr. Hale decided it was time to accept Dr. Donnan’s offer and he started teaching religion at both the college and the academy.

In addition to his role as a Bible teacher and religion professor, Dr. Hale also led the landscaping crew on campus. He was a master gardener who grew a lot of what his family ate so this was a great fit for his skills. One of the students who worked for him on this crew, Marvin Lynch, later stated, “The ‘pride in ownership’ that he had for North Greenville and the beauty of its campus was passed on to each student working under his supervision.”

In 1957, Dr. Hale was elected by the students as faculty advisor for North Greenville’s BSU. This position would become official by administrative appointment in 1960 and he held the role of BSU Director/Campus Minister for about 25 years. Charles Horner, a former campus ministry director for the South Carolina Baptist Convention, said of Dr. Hale, “If any man in the state can be called Mr. BSU, it is Wade Hale.” Another former campus ministry director, Emery Smith, said of Dr. Hale, “He has made significant contributions to the lives of young people at North Greenville and we deeply appreciate all he has done to contribute to campus ministry in South Carolina.”

In addition to BSU and the landscaping crew, Dr. Hale also served as advisor for the Dean Crain Ministerial Band at North Greenville. The ministerial band was made up of young men who felt called into the ministry. The members would meet to receive instruction in church and denominational life as well as in the general field of preaching. Dr. McManus, an alumnus and former professor at North Greenville, was in the ministerial band and stated that Dr. Hale had the biggest impact on his life out of any faculty member at the school.

In the late 1950s, Dr. Hale returned to Furman to further his education and graduated with a M.Ed. in 1958. He was not done yet, though, and in 1973 graduated from Southern Seminary with a M.Div. He began working on a D. Min degree from Southern Seminary in 1976 by commuting to Atlanta where the school had a module. His dissertation was titled “The Development of a Vocational Counseling Program for Church-Related Vocation Students at North Greenville College”, and as a part of his dissertation, he executed a course in Church-Related Vocations at North Greenville. He graduated in 1979- officially becoming Dr. Hale at the age of 63. When he graduated with his D. Min, Dr. Hale was one of only three persons 60 or older to ever graduate from any of the six Southern Baptist Convention seminaries with a Doctor of Ministries degree. He pursued his doctorate late in life because he was convinced that the more knowledge one has, the better he understands how much more there is to know. He believed that one’s education was but a reflection of God’s revelation to mankind and, for Dr. Hale, a further understanding of his finitude.

In 1973, Dr. Hale established the Cooperative-Experiential Education Program at North Greenville and directed the Co-op for five years. The Co-op program gave North Greenville students opportunities to gain work experience while earning college credit towards their degrees. In addition to church-related vocations, the co-op program also placed students in business, human resources, journalism, schools, law offices, and even pharmacy positions.

Teaching at North Greenville was not Dr. Hale’s only job, though. Dr. Hale also served as interim pastor for churches throughout Greenville, Spartanburg, and Pickens counties. According to Dr. Hale, he served at 62 churches, serving three times at five of those churches, and two times at thirteen of those churches. The shortest interim he served was five weeks and the longest was eleven months.

Dr. Hale attempted to retire from fulltime teaching in 1984. He originally planned to teach parttime on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but quickly found himself teaching full-time again. It was in 1989 that he fully retired from North Greenville. Throughout his 35 years of teaching, Dr. Hale taught over 9,000 students in courses such as Old and New Testament, Prophets in the Old Testament, The Life and Teachings of Christ, The Life and Teachings of Paul, Sociology, Courtship, Marriage and Family, American Government, and Intro to Psychology. He impacted generations of students at North Greenville including many who went on to evangelize throughout the United States and the world. He led by example and was known to frequently share his faith with any who would listen.

Retirement did not slow down Dr. Hale. When asked in a 1994 interview what he liked to do now that he was retired he stated, “I enjoy gardening, yard work, fishing, grandchildren, church, and friends.” Despite being 74 years old, he took a position as the part-time relief clerk at the Tigerville Post Office. As late as 1999, in his 80s, Dr. Hale was delivering food as a volunteer for Loaves and Fishes, a local non-profit that delivers food to shelters from local stores and restaurants. Dr. Hale and his wife also stayed active members of Tigerville Baptist Church where he served as deacon, church clerk, director of Sunday School membership, and was on the executive committee of the Baptist Association. Eventually, the Hales moved to a retirement community in Greenville and became members of Rocky Creek Baptist Church where Dr. Hale served as an assistant Adult Department Devotional Leader and assistant Sunday School teacher. In addition to all of this, Dr. Hale also served on the College Community Relations Committee for North Greenville and was a trustee of the school from 1997-2001.

Dr. Hale passed away on Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011 at the age of 95. He is buried in Woodlawn Memorial Park next to his wife of 67 years, Elizabeth. When Dr. Hale retired, he and his wife, who also worked at North Greenville, created a scholarship fund at North Greenville for ministerial students named “The Wade H. and Elizabeth R. Hale Scholarship”. His obituary asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to their scholarship fund.

Today, the Wade H. Hale Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM) Award is named in honor of Dr. Hale. The award honors recipients for their unsung service to BCM and the NGU community. Each year, it is presented to a student as well as a member of the faculty and staff.

“To one who is both teacher and friend, guide and companion; To one who has created a Christian image and helped mold the ideals of North Greenville; To one who has shown both patience and thoughtfulness, understanding and knowledge; To one who has influenced both faculty and students; To one who has the ability to inspire the weakest student and challenge the best; To one who is versatile in his abilities and interest; To Wade H. Hale we dedicate this 1965 Aurora” -Dedication page of the 1965 North Greenville Junior College yearbook