State Representative Danny Watson, left, presents Yerger Middle School Career Development Teacher Henry Hale with a Legislative Citation issued by the Arkansas House of Representatives recognizing Hale’s 51 years as a classroom teacher. Hale intends to retire at the end of the current school year. – Hope Public Schools

HOPE – A public school teaching career spanning 51 years was recently given official recognition from the Arkansas House of Representatives.

State Representative Danny Watson of Hope presented Yerger Middle School Career Development Teacher Henry Hale with a Legislative Citation that marks the body’s formal recognition of his career as Hale anticipates retirement at the end of the current academic year.

Noting Hale’s educational and career background, “the House of Representatives of the Ninety-Third General Assembly of the State of Arkansas takes great pride in recognizing Mr. Henry Hale on the occasion of his retirement and wishes him well…,” the citation states.

The citation denotes that Hale “now retires from Yerger Middle School in the Hope School District, after a career hallmarked by professionalism…” and states “Mr. Hale has shared a commitment to education, and has shaped and engaged the inquisitive minds of students, which include his own children and a granddaughter, and has been a positive influence on so many young lives…”

A native of Fulton who attended school through the sixth grade at Fulton Elementary School in the segregated system that did not change until 1969, Hale graduated from Yerger High School, then graduated from Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas, with a degree in animal sciences intending to work in research in Beckville, Md., in 1971. He began his teaching career in the Washington Public Schools, prior to moving to Yerger.