Yale University

In Memoriam

Prentis C. “Rusty” Hale

Rusty died on May 30, 2022. Here are remembrances by Jon Larson ’63, one of Rusty’s roommates at Yale, followed by a news story covering Rusty's death.

Remembrance of Rusty Hale

by Jon Larson ’63, one of his Yale ’63/’64 roommates


Rusty Hale
during his student years

Rusty had the great fortune (and in some ways misfortune) to be born into and growing up in the public eye and limelight of one of California and San Francisco’s well-known families by wealth, social status, and history. He grew up in the family mansion on Broadway in San Francisco’s most exclusive neighborhood. Rusty had one brother Hap and two sisters Hillary and Linda. He graduated from Andover before moving on to Yale in 1959. His well-known and respected father Prentis Cobb Hale was chairman of Carter Hawley Hale stores for some years, was instrumental in bringing the opera back to greatness in San Francisco, and was key to bringing the Winter Olympics to Squaw Valley, California, in 1960. His mother, known at Pat Hale, was kind and gracious, well-grounded as the daughter of a San Jose apricot grower, and was beloved by her four children, her many friends, and by Rusty’s friends he brought home with him including myself.

Rusty was tall and athletic, a heavyweight wrestler at Andover and a superb downhill skier in California and at Yale where he often joined his roommates at the Yale Ski Club’s cabin in Killington, Vermont.  He roomed three years in Grace Hopper College (formerly Calhoun) with Juan Rodriguez, and the two shared a quad with Bill Robbins and myself. He studied history at Yale and spent what would have been his senior year abroad studying in Spain. He took a fifth year and graduated with the Class of 1964 along with myself also taking a fifth year, and we shared a rental house in Milford on Long Island Sound south of New Haven. Rusty and I believe that, before the I-80 Interstate system was completed, we held the long-distance cross-country driving record, East Coast to West Coast, when in June of 1963 we drove non-stop New Haven to San Francisco in 62 hours in his Alfa Romeo Giulietta Speciale Italian sports car which he brought back from Spain. He carried on the family tradition after Yale, following his father to a graduate MBA degree from Stanford.

His life included family hunting expeditions to Africa, upscale balls at the Palace and Fairmont Hotels, dancing to Ernie Heckscher at the Christmas Cotillions where he escorted some of San Francisco’s finest daughters being presented to society. There was hunting on his family’s cattle ranch north of San Francisco. After Stanford he ran his own Angel investing group for years, finding funding for startup and early stage companies in technology and oil and gas. His first marriage to Linda brought him two children, a son and a daughter, and a second marriage to Sharon brought him a second son. He lived his middle years commuting between business interests in San Francisco and a large forested property he owned in Oregon. When his second marriage ended he moved up to Oregon full time from where he managed his investments.

In a most unfortunate recent happening reported in the local Oregon newspapers (see below), his life ended prematurely along with his third wife of five years when they were both discovered as reported in the newspapers as victims of a possible murder/suicide (or possibly an accidental shooting followed by suicide). The exact circumstances will never be known. A tragedy for certain, which will forever taint the memory of a family and a life well and fully lived, full of great achievements ameliorated by having to overcome some midlife failings made more difficult by being in the social limelight as scion of a well-known San Francisco family with its own history of dysfunction and public failings clouding its many superb achievements.

Remembrance of Rusty Hale

by Randy Labbe ’64

Besides my Saybrook roommates, Rusty was my closest connection to our Class. The tragic circumstances surrounding the end of his life have been devastating and inexplicable. We enjoyed regular phone calls and intermittent luncheon get-togethers in Portland. He would regularly voice enthusiasm for his latest venture-capital investment and always display his signature sense of humor and zest for life. Rusty was renowned for his mischievous nature, his eye for pretty girls, and his love of music. For many years his definition of heaven was to be at the Bohemian Grove with his guitar and too many musical venues to visit on any given night. He will also be fondly remembered as the legendary cat-burglar of the Class of ’64. I miss you ‘bro.

Two people found dead of gunshot wounds at home in rural Yamhill County

Investigators found evidence that the shooting happened during a domestic violence dispute between the two.

KGW.com, Portland, Oregon

June 8, 2022

SHERIDAN, Ore — Investigators say two people were discovered dead at a remote property in rural Yamhill County last week, both of them having suffered gunshot wounds.

Around 7:30 p.m. on May 30, deputies from the Yamhill County Sheriff's Office responded to a call at a home in the 11000 block of Southwest Dupee Valley Road — a large, remote property roughly between McMinnville and the town of Sheridan.

The 911 caller reported that they'd gone to the property to check on some animals there and found two people who appeared to be dead. Deputies soon confirmed that there were two dead adults inside the home and found evidence that the scene was "suspicious in nature."

Detectives from the sheriff's office Special Investigations Unit responded to investigate further, collecting and processing evidence. Some of that evidence is still waiting on analysis at the Oregon State Police Forensic Laboratory, the sheriff's office said.

The two people were identified as Prentis "Rusty" Hale III, 80, and Karen Hansen-Pieri, 60. Both had died from gunshot wounds, and the sheriff's office said that the initial investigation concluded that the shooting happened during an episode of domestic violence.

The particulars of how the shooting happened are still under investigation, the sheriff's office said.

"There is no threat to the community and due to the necessary time needed to complete preliminary investigative work and notify next of kin who do not reside in Oregon, no previous release of information regarding this incident was made," the agency continued.

Both Hale and Hansen-Pieri had lived at the Dupee Valley property for the past five years, the sheriff's office said, though Hale had been there for a total of about 25 years.

Deputies responded to a call at the home involving Hale and Hansen-Pieri once before, in 2020, but the sheriff's office said that it was "non-criminal in nature."