Fred J. Dale Jr.

Published in the Hickory Daily Record on 9/21/2008

HICKORY - Fred Jones Dale Jr., died Friday, Sept. 19, 2008, at Brian Center-Viewmont. He was born in Long View on Feb. 25, 1932, to the late Fred and Gladys Dale. He graduated from Hickory High School in 1950.

He played American Legion baseball and was the first in that league ever to perform an unassisted triple play while playing for the famous 1948 Legion team.

He graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1954. At UNC, he played baseball (having received scholarship help from Shuford Mills), was president of the Sigma Chi fraternity and was president of the senior class.

In his senior year, he signed to play shortstop with the Washington Senators. After an injury shortened his career, he went to work in sales for Shuford Mills in Hickory. He married the former Phyllis Matheson of Hickory in 1954.

In the late 1950s Dale moved his family to Arcadia, Calif., as Shuford Mill's first sales representative in that region. Later, he hired on with Gaylord Container and became that company's premier sales representative, covering a region from Idaho to Colorado to Hawaii.

In the mid-1980s, Dale, having retired from Gaylord, moved back to Hickory, where he enjoyed family, friends, golf and the Hickory High and UNC sports scenes.

He is survived by his son, Fred Jones Dale III, of Boulder, Colo., and his former wife, Ellen Dale; his daughter, Susan Dale Possemato and husband, Paul, of Casa Del Mar, Calif.; and his grandchildren, Erin Nantz, Mellisa Dale, Amanda Dale, Adam Dale, Erica Pegram, Peter Possemota and Domini Possemato. He also is survived by his sisters, Hazel Dale Shores and Nancy Dale Stout; his brother, David Lewis Dale; his uncle, Marvin Dale; and his aunt, Louise Gadd.

Memorials may be sent to Palliative CareCenter & Hospice of Catawba Valley, 3975 Robinson Road, Newton, N.C. 28658.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete at Bass-Smith Funeral Home & Crematory in Hickory.