Dale Hurley is an Instructor in Mathematics and an Assistant Coach for Water Polo and Crew. He graduated from the Naval Academy where he rowed crew, and after graduating served for 7 years. Dale also rowed for the U.S. National Team where he competed in 5 Rowing World Championships.
How do you think that rowing and mathematics complement each other at all, and have skills from one helped you with the other?
I would say that in general, because I was an athlete in high school, an athlete in college, and then I continued to compete after college, I always feel like if you’re a good athlete, it’s because you’re focused on what you do. You can turn everything off and focus on what you’re doing and do it well. So, the same is true if you’re in a classroom. If you can turn everything off and focus on what you’re doing in the classroom you can do a lot. So, if you’re good at anything because of that focus, and that ability, that should translate to what you’re doing in class. It’s not necessarily the fun thing that you want to do, but it is the thing that if you practice that skill, then you can turn it on and turn it off whenever you want. So I wouldn’t regulate it to just rowing, I would regulate it to any sport or any activity.
You are a big snow shoveler. Can you talk about this any why you’re such a big contributor to helping out the community?
That all started back when [Abbot Cluster Dean] Taylor Washburn’s dad was here. He used to try to get the teams to go out and shovel snow. And the reason why was because [there are] people that have machines to do the walks, but they didn’t have enough people to do the walks. So, Mr. Washburn was like ‘let’s just get the teams out and we’ll do the stairs. We can do that, and you guys can go ahead and focus on your thing. You do your job, and we’ll help out with this any way we can’. It would turn out to be a really fun thing. I did it initially when he was here and then after he left I just continued doing it. It became a real team bonding thing. It especially works well when the seniors on the rowing team would sort of take over. It takes team effort. It’s like a good workout for the guys and the girls, and the more people would show up, the better it got. So, it’s always a good time, and it’s sort of a fun thing to do.
What was your favorite part about being in the Navy?
My favorite part, to this day, I still can see it. When you’re out on a ship, they use this thing called darkened ship where they turn all the lights off because you’re trying to practice being incognito out on the water. There’s no lights anywhere, on any of the ships, so you can’t see anything when you look around. But when you look up, you can see the stars. You can see all the stars. You can take your hand and make the smallest hole, and look through it, and you still can’t count the number of stars in that hole. There’s so many stars out there, and we don’t even realize it… It makes you feel so small because you look at it and you’re like ‘wow, there’s a lot going on up there.’ I thought that was my favorite part, just doing that. I remember there were times where I’d be on a ship, and I would be looking up at the stars, and I’d see something way over. There’s a ship maybe five miles away and there’s just a guy that just lights a cigarette outside. And you see the light, because it’s that dark. It’s amazing.
How did you discover your passion for mathematics?
I was always good at math in high school. I had a really good teacher in high school, my public high school, her name was Mrs. Edwards, and she was my pre-calculus and calculus teacher. She was really the driving force behind me liking math in general. She pushed me really hard. She wasn’t easy, but she was very good, and she sort of made me. She knew that I was very competitive, so she would always challenge me by saying that I couldn’t do it so I didn’t dislike her, in fact I really respected her a lot and she would always say ‘I don’t know if you can do this.’ And then I would say, give me a shot, and she gave me a shot. So yeah, that was pretty much it.
Rowing is a grueling sport. Has it shaped your mentality in any way about how you go about life?
I was never a rower when I was in high school. It was basketball, baseball, football, swimming, and water polo even, but I never rowed. When I went to college, I couldn’t make the varsity on any of those teams… So when I went to rowing, I just found that it was my thing. They rewarded hard work, and they accepted walk-ins, which was really nice. I feel like, in my mind I still look at it in that context. Anybody on campus who just wants to try it out should just go for it because you don’t really need to have a skill, to do it, you just have to have the desire to go into it. I like things where you can just walk in and do your best and see what happens. You could just take off. I know it sounds like an elitist sport, but it’s really not. Most of the guys I was [with] on the US team had never rowed in high school. They were just regular guys that took on rowing because it happened to be something that interested them. So, I like that aspect of it. It’s a grueling sport, I think it’s a sport that’s got a lot of room for people that don’t really know what to do, but they want to do something.
Who has inspired you the most in your life?
I’d probably say my parents. They were both hardworking people. Neither one of them went to college. They worked really hard their entire life to make it work. I had an older brother, and an older sister who were good mentors for me. And a younger sister who was actually a great mentor for me as well, but my parents were probably my biggest inspiration.
How was your experience at the Naval Academy?
I went to the [Naval] Academy, and the rule is that if you graduate from the Academy, you have to serve five years to repay because you don’t pay for school. So it’s a free school but you have to do your time in the Navy as an officer. I actually stayed for seven and a half years, mainly because it was a good opportunity. I got really good hands-on training, and it gave me a lot of responsibilities that I probably wouldn’t have had if I had just gone into the workforce. I probably would have been an apprentice for a while, doing things, working. When you get out of the Naval Academy, immediately they throw you right in and you just start doing things. Being an officer of a ship and being in charge of divisions and departments and stuff like that. It was quite daunting for somebody who was 22 years old, a kid right out of college to be put in charge of [about] 275 people… I mean there were a lot of benefits, and I got to see the world.
Being in the Navy and on a boat for extended periods of time, were there any challenges?
It was not always fun. It made it so even when you were on an aircraft carrier, which was a huge ship, it really feels small, when you’re out there in the middle of the Atlantic for a really long time, and everything feels cramped in.
What led you to becoming a teacher at Andover?
I was at Blair Academy, and I was teaching and coaching there. Before Blair Academy I was a head coach of [crew] at the Naval Academy, and one of the rowers that we recruited was from Andover. He’s actually Taylor Washburn’s older brother, Hunter Washburn. I learned about the program through him… I wanted to get my masters, and Andover was going to offer me the job here and also let me take a masters, and support me, so that was what got me here.
Do you have a Commons hack or go to food?
Yes, I do. When they have it out, you know the cinnamon sugar? At the end of the meal, I will go down, and I’ll toast a bagel. [I] put butter and cinnamon sugar on it as the last meal. That’s my go to.
