Dr. Douglas Fleming Hale, former professor of mathematics and computer science at The University of Texas Permian Basin, died Sept. 23, 2025, in Maine.
A memorial service is being planned for next summer, when his family can gather to celebrate his life. It will also be streamed for the many people whose lives he touched in Odessa and throughout the world.
Doug grew up in upstate New York and Columbus, Ohio, with his younger sister, Anne. He attended The Ohio State University, getting his Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and doctorate in mathematics. While in Columbus he met and married his first wife, Margie LeCureux— now Margie Rodgers Gillette.
After a short stint as a lecturer in mathematics at Oklahoma State University, where his first son, David, was born, he became one of the founding faculty members at The University of Texas Permian Basin in Odessa, Texas, in 1973, where he taught courses in mathematics and the then-emerging field of computer science.
At UTPB he met Dr. Lois Smith Hale, with whom he had his second son, Peter, in 1979. Together they served the UTPB community for 40 years.
In the 1990s Doug led UTPB’s pioneering distance learning program, the Regional Electronic Academic Communications Highway. The goal was to bring college and postgraduate courses to students throughout remote parts of West Texas, but there was demand for the program worldwide. In addition to developing some of the key techniques in effective distance education, Doug researched how to integrate distance education programs into traditional higher education and gain acceptance among college administrators who viewed the emerging technology as both opportunity and challenge.
Doug believed in a holistic approach to higher education and viewed his job as constantly challenging his students to think, and to learn to apply their learnings beyond the classroom. He was recognized for his dedication to his students and to scholarship when he was awarded the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation Piper Professor award in 2007 and the University of Texas Regents Outstanding Teacher Award in 2009.
HIs impact on students went beyond the classroom, however. He was a strident advocate and a sought-after mentor for generations of students.
Inspired by his father’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, Doug was the chair of the board of the STAR Chapter of Alzheimer’s Association, which encompasses the western two-thirds of Texas, extending from the Panhandle to the Valley. His work with the Alzheimer’s Association led him to realize when the disease began to impact himself in his later years. Ever dedicated to learning and research, he volunteered for studies looking for methods to slow the disease.
In his private life Doug loved to cook and to read, generally books about history and science. After spending years of summer vacations on Bailey Island, Maine, with Lois, the two eventually purchased the historic schoolhouse on the island as their retirement home. Lois predeceased Doug in 2022.
Doug is survived by his son, David, and daughter-in-law, Anne-Cécile, of Ellicott City, Maryland; son, Peter, and daughter-in-law, Orenda, of Cape Elizabeth, Maine; and grandchildren, Hannah, Sophie, Madeleine, Charlotte, Luca, Lola, and Poppy.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you consider a contribution to the Drs. Lois and Doug Hale Endowed Scholarship at UTPB.
