Scott Hale

December 27, 1950 - March 31, 2016

Scott Hale died at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico on March 31st 2016. He was 65 years old. Hale was born in Houston Texas to Eulas "Tex" Hale Jr. and Isabel Troxell. Family vacations to the Colorado mountains in the 50's and 60's began his lifelong love of the wilderness and the open skies of the west.

As soon as he could, Hale left Houston to travel New Mexico and Colorado on his own. He took what work he could find on construction jobs or fire crews. In the mid seventies he returned to Texas, settling in Austin and trying several short-lived management careers in publishing and entertainment. In the late 70's he accepted an offer to oversee the renovation of a friend's Austin residence. During that project Hale discovered a talent for creating residential interiors that were both artistically expressive and comfortably livable. During subsequent projects over the next 30 years, Hale's self-taught residential design esthetic grew to combine a devotion to a natural color palette of reds and browns with a rigorous and exacting standard for architectural form and fine detail. "No one is more in love with the color of mud than I am" he would joke, while spending hours mixing an earth-toned paint sample to an acceptable hue of ochre.

Over the course of his life Hale's main residences included Austin TX, Breckenridge CO, and Santa Fe, NM. In each location Hale left unique and memorable works of residential design, recognizable by their originality and their incorporation of visual artifacts from Spanish and Native American cultures, both of which he studied and admired. Hale loved his family and friends, cars, horseback riding in the open country, and animated discussions of culture or politics.

A lovely Southwestern gentleman to the end, Scott is survived by his wife Cindy, stepdaughter Lauren, stepson Christopher, sister Linda Hale Buchanan (WHS 1974), brother-in-law Mike Buchanan, nephew Zach and niece Brenna, many cousins, and dozens of lifelong friends across the US and in Australia. He will be remembered and greatly missed for his lively intelligence and wit, and his heartfelt devotion to his friends and loved ones.

Charitable contributions may be made in Scott's memory to The Food Depot, a Northern New Mexico Food Bank (www.thefooddepot.org ) where he was a weekly volunteer.

Published by New York Times from Jun. 9 to Jun. 10, 2016.

Deceased Classmate: Hale, Scott 1969
Obituary Link: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nytimes/name/scott-hale-obituary?pid=180272279
Date Of Birth: December -27-1950
Date Deceased: March-31-2016
Age at Death: 65
Cause of Death:
Classmate City: Santa Fe
Classmate State: NM
Classmate Country: USA
Was a Veteran: No
Survived By: Wife, Cindy Ryker, Stepdaughter Lauren Petzke and son-in-law Mike Karasick, sister Linda Hale and brother-in-law Mike Buchanan, nephew Zach Buchanan and niece Brenna Buchanan, Step-son Chris Berend and daughter in law Sarah Barack.

Scott was my brother, my only sibling, 6 years older, and in the second WHS graduating class. He was very handsome, very funny and very smart, very late (a family trait), and never lacked for female companionship,.

He was often in trouble, but could charm his way out of most of it. In high school he was a surfer, and was always trying to catch the less than impressive waves at Surfside, with buddies Loren Charter and Jay Hunter.

He attended ENM State in Portales, New Mexico, as it was as close as he could get to a ski slope into a college that would admit him given his dedication to anything but studying. He transferred to UT Austin after a year, and left school after one more semester - not a guy who worked well under rules of others.

His career spanned construction in Colorado and New Mexico, as well as firefighting, Texas Monthly in Austin, as well as the music business and set design in independent films in the Austin area. Most of his career, though, was as a renovation and interior designer, at which he excelled. Scott knew how to make and maintain friendships, better than any man I have ever known, and he was unparalleled as a truly great big brother.

He is missed by so many.

 

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nytimes/name/scott-hale-obituary?pid=180272279