At the age of 10 he moved with his parents Robert W. and Laverne Sorter Wales to Pasadena, California.
In 1926, before his graduation at high school he contributed to the journal Condor where he published articles about the band-tailed pigeon and gulls.
[1][2][3] Together with George S. Myers he collected three specimens of the now extinct Ash Meadows killifish in 1930.
From 1959 to 1979 he served as Associate Professor of Food Science and Technology and pathologist at the Oregon State University, where he analyzed liver cancer in rainbow trouts.
As a pastime Wales and his wife bred Thoroughbred horses at their residence at Mount Shasta.