Shirley Hale

Born 28 April 1931 in Munising, Michigan, Shirley was the eldest (and only girl) of four children of Ashley Ray (Ray) and Myra Ella (Marie) Adair (nee Ripley). While growing up in Munising, she helped her father, a commercial fisherman, by running the “fish store” in the summer. Ray would sell his daughter fish, and Shirley would resell them, trying to make a profit. Shirley was always proud that she made close to $600 a summer.

In 1949, after graduating from Mather High School, Shirley attended Alma College, with the intention of studying medicine and teaching. But a chance encounter with another “Yooper” (a person from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan), Robert (Bob) Hale of Newberry, led to romance, a wedding, and a move to Midland, Michigan, where Bob had a job at a bank.

They stayed in Midland 25 years, raising four kids (which kept Shirley busy), while Bob rose up to become bank president. It was a source of pride to Shirley (and amusement to others) that–while Bob was a successful banker–Shirley handled all the family money, and kept Bob on a strict allowance. In 1975 they moved to Kingsford, Michigan, with Bob becoming president of a new bank.

Sadness came in 1982, as the plans Bob and Shirley made–to retire that summer and sail the sloop they’d purchased down to the Caribbean–fell apart. Bob got and succumbed to brain cancer. He was 53. With the kids grown and Bob gone, Shirley found herself at loose ends.

In 1984 a friend offered Shirley the unusual job of house mother of a sorority (Pi Beta Phi) at Denison University in Granville Ohio. Shirley packed her car, found Granville on a map, and drove there. Here she commenced a new chapter in her life, spending 14 years as a house mother and beginning what would be a lifelong membership in the First Presbyterian Church of Granville. Her job had “summers off”, so Shirley was able to travel with friends (throughout Europe, Russia, China, and other countries), and even spend summers with family members in Germany and Turkey.

Fiercely independent, Shirley chose to permanently remain in Granville, where she enjoyed the culture of Denison University and community of friends. But most of her energies were focused on church activities, where for years Shirley managed the kitchen and made what she regarded as some of her strongest and most enduring friendships. She helped in making crafts and baking for church activities, as well as attending Circle and prayer groups, and visiting other members in need.

Shirley also loved music and played piano most of her life. She enjoyed hosting lunches and dinners, playing cribbage and bridge, and creating many gifts of love for friends and family (including birth and; wedding samplers, personalized Christmas stockings, and very warm sweaters).

In 2023, Shirley moved to the Otterbein Granville community, where she much enjoyed her final chapter on earth.

A kind and caring woman, very straightforward, Shirley was loved and now missed by many; including her four children Jeff (Lisa), Steve (Vi), Tim (Phyllis) and Sally (Steve Schuirmann, nine grandchildren, and ten great grandchildren. She is also survived by her brother Royce Adair, his wife Nancy, and two other sisters-in-law, Marguerite Adair and LaVerne Obey.

A memorial service will be held at 11:00 AM, Saturday, 18 January 2025 at the First Presbyterian Church of Granville, 110 W. Broadway, Granville, Ohio 43023; then Shirley’s ashes will be divided: half will join Bob’s in the water near Les Cheneaux Islands in Lake Huron; the other half will join her parents in the Maple Grove Cemetery in Munising.

In lieu of flowers, Shirley requested a donation be made to the First Presbyterian Church of either Granville or Munising.

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