FIND THE GOOD AND PRAISE IT - Alex Haley Museum and ...

FIND THE GOOD AND PRAISE IT!!
In Loving Memory of William Alexander Haley, Sr.
A much-loved son, father, grandfather, and brother, William Alexander Haley, Sr.
(Fella), 67, of Beaufort, North Carolina, passed away peacefully at Durham VA Medical
Center on December 17, 2012. He was born November 19, 1945 in Morehead City, North
Carolina, and resided in Beaufort, for the past 5 years.
William was a veteran of the Vietnam War in the 101st Airborne, and chose to become a
career service member of the U.S. Army from 1967 until his retirement in March, 1989.
During his military career, he was able to attend the University of Maryland, where he
received his Bachelor of Science degree, and later his Masters of Business
Administration.
Around 1979, the Army assigned him to the Defense Department’s Defense Equal
Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI), then known as the Defense Race Relations
Institute. He worked as part of an internal task force examining the causes of racial
turmoil within the military.
As an instructor, he trained military members and civilians conducting seminars on race
and human relations with the goal of improving race and gender diversity throughout the
military ranks. In the last years before his retirement, he served as an Army recruiter in
St. Louis, MO until being honorably discharged on March 31, 1989 after 22 years of
service. Following his military retirement, he became the Director of Human Resources
for the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
It was after the death of his father, Alex Haley, author of Roots in February of 1992, that
he sought to preserve the legacy of works and the message of “family” his father often
spoke about during his lifetime. Among the many things he did was to create the Haley
Family Corporation in St. Louis, MO where he arranged or led Roots tours back to the
village of Juffure, where his father Alex discovered the name and history of “the African”
Kunta Kinte.
He also, for a time, opened and operated the Alex Haley Museum in “old” Annapolis,
MD in walking distance from the Kunta Kinte–Alex Haley Memorial marking the
arrival point of the slave ship that transported his ancestor Kunta Kinte from The
Gambia, West Africa. Over the years he was invited to speak at many schools, groups,
and associations, receiving numerous awards and recognition—among them were the
NAACP, Elon University, the Detroit City Council and the Schomburg Center for
Research & Black Culture. He was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Central
Christian University.
He is survived by his mother, Nannie V. Haley and sister, Lydia Ann Haley both of
Beaufort, NC; sister, Cynthia Haley Dunn of Decatur, GA; wife, Barbara Haley of
Columbia, SC; son, William Haley Jr. and wife Kim of Cypress, CA; son, Todd Haley of
Columbia, SC; daughter, Tara Haley of Columbia, SC; grandchildren, Neveah of

Columbia, SC; Nala and Khai of Cypress, CA; uncle, Ambassador George W. Haley
and wife Doris of Silver Spring, MD; nephew, Michael Baker and wife Melody of
Newport, NC; cousins and many beloved friends.