A native of Pasadena, CA, Hales attended Flintridge Preparatory School in La Canada, California.
He was a member of the council of the International Badminton Federation for 10 years and was one of three deputy referees for the badminton competition at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, GA. Hales won back-to-back national junior titles in 1959 and 1960, and became a national champion again by winning the Grand Master's (60 and over) men's singles title in 2002 and 2003.
In the area of public service, Hales served in 2003-04 as a member of Governor Robert A. Taft’s Commission of Higher Education and the Economy.
In 2002–03, he chaired the Site Selection Task Force for Wayne County Chapter of the American Red Cross.
Hales and his wife, Diane (also a former U.S. badminton champion), have two children: Karen, a graduate of Swarthmore College and Stanford University (Ph.D.), currently on the faculty at Davidson College, and Chris, a graduate of Stanford and Yale Law School and currently Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California.