Above is a picture of Nathaniel, “Nat”, Gale receiving his high school diploma from Hartford Public High School in 2004. He received the SINA student of the month award (pictured to the right) his freshman year at HPHS. Like many freshmen, he was excited and optimistic about his future high school experience. He looked forward to continuing with the soccer and swim team and finally taking an English class with a legendary teacher he had heard all his older sisters talk about around the dinner table – Mr. Edward Clarke.

This award was not the only recognition Nat would receive during high school. His senior year, he was invited by the Hartford Courant to an award ceremony recognizing the best Op-Ed articles of the year. As a senior at Hartford Public, Nat read in the newspaper that the Board of Education was thinking about moving half the students of his school to another building while the school was renovated. Concerned, he wrote an Op-Ed expressing how school felt like home for many kids and was a place of safety. Nat asked whether or not the desires of the students were truly being considered. Ultimately, the students were not moved and Nat received that letter in a frame at the award ceremony.

That framed letter (pictured to the right) now hangs on his office wall. Nat is the Director of Operations for the City of Hartford and works with the very committee that Op-Ed was addressed to, the school buildings committee, which is chaired by SINA’s Executive Director Melvyn Colon. In his role, Nat is able to keep at the front of his mind that very thing which concerned him as a high school senior, the impact decisions have on people’s lives.

It is this knowledge that drove him into his career path and motivates him to carry out his job with excellence. “Growing up in Hartford, I often reflected on why our city looked the way it does and why our people were treated a certain way,” he said. “In college I was given the framework to understand the structural causes behind the barriers people experience.” He sees his work, when done with intentionality, as a way to remove some of those barriers and increase opportunity.

It is no surprise Nat is so civically minded. His grandpa who immigrated from Italy to Hartford was involved in the civil rights movement and was one of the first people in the West End to rent to a Black family. That family eventually bought the home and still owns it today. His father, John Gale, currently serves in his second term on Hartford City Council. Growing up Nat remembers his dad helping to start Mo’s Midtown off of Farmington Avenue, rallying neighbors to save the bowling alley on the West End, and organizing Jambalaya on the River. He was always up to something to celebrate community in Hartford.

For Nat, Hartford is home. “Hartford is my north star,” he said, describing the decade he lived in California. Even though he was 3,000 miles away he would still read the Hartford Courant and keep up to date with what was going on.

While in Los Angeles Nat worked as an engineer before getting a job with the City of Los Angeles, working in the Mayor’s Office and the Department of Transportation, managing a multi-billion dollar infrastructure program and developing a “Great Streets” initiative before transitioning to a private firm. It was at that job that Nat got the call home.

If Hartford is Nat’s north star, then it is also his Milky Way. “The power of Hartford is its people,” he said. Nat views Hartford as a collection of hardworking, talented individuals whose stories are not noticed and celebrated nearly enough. That is why he thinks institutions and communities have such a responsibility and important role in making sure they recognize and celebrate the greatness that already exists in their midst. A part of the city’s greatness was recognized in 2001 by Hartford Public High School, in 2004 by the Hartford Courant and again we recognize that excellence today. I think I can say on behalf of myself and all who read this – Nat, we’re glad you’re home.