On 8 October 2001, LSA Past President Kenneth L. Hale died at his home. A few days earlier, LSA President Walt Wolfram had called and written to tell him that at its 2 May 2001 meeting, the Officers and Executive Committee approved by acclamation establishment of the Kenneth L. Hale Award for outstanding linguistic scholarship that documents a particular endangered or minority language or language no longer spoken.
The idea for recognition of such important work came from Ken himself, but the Executive Committee immediately saw how fitting it would be to name such a award in his honor. We told him at the time that his nominee would receive the first such prize at the January 2002 meetings in San Francisco. What we did not tell him then, but did let him know when we learned how ill he was, is that the Executive Committee unanimously and enthusiastically decided that such a prize should bear his name.
Through his own research, his teaching, and the many kinds of support activities he undertook, Ken Hale helped preserve, invigorate, and document many languages that might otherwise be no longer accessible. He helped us see that language loss not only impoverishes those in whose cultural heritage the lost language figures prominently but also robs the rest of us of the distinctive window each language sheds on the human mind. By the powerful example of his decades of important work, he showed us that linguistic theory and language description are mutually enriching. He also showed us that linguists have important social responsibilities and special debts to the people on whose languages we work.
Kenneth L. Hale was a wonderful and generous contributor to the Linguistic Society of America, to the discipline of linguistics, and to the many people in Australia, Latin America, this country, and elsewhere who have had the very special privilege of knowing and working with him. He will be greatly missed, but his legacy will continue to inspire coming generations of linguists.
A memorial service was held on 1 November at MIT. Ken had requested that any donations in his memory be made to the Navajo Language Academy. An organization of Navajo scholars who were trained and inspired by Ken, the academy is dedicated to various educational activities designed to help Navajo bilingual teachers in their efforts to maintain the Navajo language. Memorials made out to the Navajo Language Academy may be sent to: Peggy Speas, Treasurer, c/o Dept. Ling., U MA, Amherst, MA 01003.