Howard Ross Hale Jr.

He was born on January 8, 1941 in Kingsport, TN, the son of Howard Ross Hale Sr. and Alice Katherine Barnes Hale. He attended Yale University, Oglethorpe University in Georgia, and the University of Florida, before graduating from Ohio State University with a major in mathematics. After consulting for several years with Arthur Anderson and Company, he returned to school at the University of Delaware to earn his Masters in Computer Science.

He then taught two years at Humboldt State University in Northern California before venturing north to Seattle, where he worked for I.P. Sharp developing business solutions using APL and other programming languages. After 25 years developing software for actuaries and Microsoft, he finally retired to relax, enjoy road trips around the country, and most recently to move closer to his daughter Kelley, in Cary, NC. He loved celebrating with family and friends, and he grieved deeply at the loss of his son Jeff to leukemia in 2005.

In addition to his parents, Ross was preceded in death by his son Jeffrey Scott Hale, his sister Barbara Jane Moore, and his brother Michael James Hale. He is survived by his wife Virginia Zimmer Hale, his daughter Kelley Hale Gemma and husband Tim, his sister Mary Ann Hale Visser and husband Sent, his sister Nancy Margaret Hale, his sister Jennifer Sue Smith, and many nieces, nephews and cousins.

A private memorial will be held at a later date.

Donations in his memory may be made to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC.