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A biography of former Baltimore banker Ed Hale is set to detail his rise from a Sparrows Point upbringing to exploits in real estate, sports business and banking – working covertly for the CIA and surviving plane crashes along the way.
Apprentice House, a student-run book publisher at Loyola University Maryland, is releasing "Hale Storm," by former Baltimore Sun columnist Kevin Cowherd, on Nov. 1.
A preview of the book suggests Hale's story will be a dramatic one, going beyond what most know about his career founding First Mariner Bank, buying the Baltimore Blast indoor soccer team and being part of redevelopment along the Canton waterfront.
"With an equal measure of brains and guts, he conquers the worlds of business and industry, buys an indoor soccer team, hobnobs with princes, politicians and heads of state, works covertly for the Central Intelligence Agency, dates a succession of astonishingly beautiful women and builds an iconic tower in the midst of the grimy Baltimore waterfront that helps transform acres of forlorn industrial ruin into a thriving neighborhood," a description of the book says.
The story will also detail some of the low points, the publisher continues: "Hale's swings and misses on two turbulent marriages, his history-making divorce from his first wife, union problems and death threats, the plane crashes he survived, the business deals that went sour, the distinctive tower he was forced to sell and the heart-wrenching decision to walk away from the beloved bank that he founded and nurtured for so many years."
Hale could not be reached for comment Tuesday, and CIA officials did not respond to a request for comment.
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