Albert Hadley was born in 1920 in Springfield, Tennessee. He studied art and design for two years at Peabody College (now part of Vanderbilt University) and worked as an assistant to Nashville-based decorator A. Herbert Rodgers.

Following military service in World War II, Hadley moved to New York where he enrolled in Parsons School of Design. He was offered a scholarship and completed a three-year course of study in the school’s interior design department, graduating in 1949. Parsons president Van Day Truex subsequently hired Hadley as an instructor in the Interior Design Department. Hadley taught at Parsons until 1954, but maintained what became a lifelong friendship with Truex, who died in 1979.

After a period of self-employment, Hadley joined McMillen, Inc., a prestigious interior design firm under the direction of Eleanor McMillen Brown. At the time, Hadley was one of the few men ever employed by the firm. He stayed with McMillen until 1962.

Hadley began working with decorator Dorothy “Sister” Parish in January 1963, following an introduction by Van Day Truex. Hadley introduced Parish to modernism and complemented her self-taught decorating methods with his formal design training. In 1964, Parish invited Hadley to become a partner in Mrs. Henry Parish II, Inc. The decorating firm then became Parish-Hadley. Supported by a team of young designers, Parish-Hadley built an international reputation with many high-profile clients, including William and Babe Paley, the Bronfman family, the Gore family, and Brooke Astor. In 1982, Parish-Hadley, Inc. became Parish-Hadley Associates, Inc. in recognition of the contributions by all of its designers. Sister Parish died in 1994 and Hadley dissolved Parish-Hadley Associates five years later. He opened a new business, Albert Hadley, Inc., in 2000.

Albert Hadley was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame in 1986. He holds honorary degrees from Parsons and from the New York School of Interior Design, and is a fellow of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).