Cornelia (Lya) Hale

Lya (nee van Bokhoven) Hale was born and grew up in the Netherlands.  After graduating from Hague Academy, she completed a program in administrative studies at Schoevers Business School, also in The Hague.   She was working as an interpreter and international secretary for Aramco Oil Company when she met Fletcher Hale (deceased 2001), an American traveling in Europe at the time.

They married in 1958, and shortly afterwards, the couple settled in Clifton Forge, Virginia, where Fletcher, an optometrist, had an established practice.   Lya soon worked with him as optician and office manager, positions that she continued to hold when, in 1964, they relocated to Lynchburg.  The Hales have a son, Brandon, who lives in New Orleans with his wife Amy.

In 1974, along with two friends, Lya founded Lynchburg’s first Montessori school. She has been an active volunteer for several community organizations, including the Lynchburg City School System, the Fine Arts Center (today the Academy Center of the Arts), Maier Museum, and Lynchburg Daily Bread, where she served on the board and helped with the organization’s public relations approach.  Through Lya’s efforts, the typical and lengthy end-of-the-year letter from a nonprofit was replaced with cards that show scenes painted by local artists and contains brief and enticing messages guaranteed to catch the reader’s attention.  Today and thirteen years later, Lya’s idea is still being used by Daily Bread.  

Lya actively pursues a number of personal interests.  When she is not reading for her two book clubs, or looking for the perfect scene to photograph, Lya may be playing bridge, or in WC’s pool executing a prescribed physical therapy routine, or writing a piece for the next meeting of WC/VES’s writing group.