John T. Hayward papers

John T. Hayward was born on November 15, 1908, in New York City to Charles B. Hayward and Rosa Valdetarro Hayward. His father was involved in the development of aviation early on and was associated with the Wright Brothers. He was the author of several books on aeronautics.

Young Hayward enlisted in the Navy in 1925 and was sent to the Naval Training Station in Newport, RI where he met and was counseled by Father John J. Brady, a Catholic priest, who encouraged him to apply for entrance to the U.S. Naval Academy. Hayward was honorably discharged from the Navy in 1926 and accepted at the Academy where he excelled in water polo and was named All American in 1930. He graduated that same year with the rank of ensign and reported to the cruiser USS Richmond. While in the Richmond off the Honduran coast in 1931, he saved the lives of several members of a swimming party and was awarded the Silver Life Saving Medal by the U.S. Treasury Department, the first of many awards and medals he received during his naval career. Hayward next reported to the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, in 1931 for pilot training and was designated a naval aviator in 1932. Much of his career prior to and during World War II was spent in aviation. He was assigned to various Scouting and Patrol Squadrons and was senior aviator in the cruiser Phoenix. In 1940-1941, he was an observer with the Royal Air Force and in 1943-1944 served in the Central, South and Southwest Pacific as Commander of Bombing Squadron 106. In 1949, he had the distinction of being the first pilot to land a heavy attack aircraft with nuclear weapons on an aircraft carrier.

As Experimental Officer at the Naval Ordnance Test Station in lnyokern, California, from 1944 to 1947, he was involved in the development of rocketry and in a study of the potential destruction of the atom bomb. At the close of the war, he went to Japan as a member of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki study. In 1947, he was assigned to the Manhattan Project at tl1e Sandia Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he worked on the operational functioning of the atom bomb.

Assigrunents in the field of atomic weapons continued in the 1950s when he was appointed head of weapons research in the Division of Military Application of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1951. There he was involved in planning for the atomic weapons laboratory work at Los Alamos and Sandia In 1952, he was instrumental in obtaining funding for the establislunent of the Atomic Energy Commission's Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California. In 1954, he was named commander of the Naval Ordnance Laboratory at White Oak, a position he held through 1956.

Hayward's work on the various atomic energy projects brought him into contact with the greatest scientific minds of the war and post-war era, including Dr. Edward Teller and Dr. Norris Bradbury. Passionately interested in higher education and in physics, he took graduate courses in physics and mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, the University of New Mexico, Stanford University and the University of Maryland over a twenty year period.

In 1957, Hayward returned to sea as CO of the aircraft carrier Franklin D. Roosevelt. From 1957 to 1961, he was assigned as Deputy CNO for Research and Development where he was instrumental in the construction of the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise. In 1966, he assumed the presidency of the Naval War College in Newport, RI, where he succeeded in obtaining funding for the construction of three new buildings at the institution and in revising the curricuhun, making it a more demanding and rigorous intellectual experience for the students. Other innovations included the establishment of the Board of Advisors to the president, the appointment of a permanent civilian academic advisor, and the creation of additional academic chairs. When he retired from the Navy on September l, 1966, the College was on a firm footing.

Upon his retirement, Hayward became the Vice President, International, at General Dynamics Corporation, serving in that capacity from 1968 to 1973. In 1973, he formed Hayward Associates and was a consultant to other defense related companies. He served on the boards of the Hertz Foundation, the Charles Stark Draper Laboratories, the Newport Country Club, Salve Regina College, the Naval War College Foundation and the Steadman Mutual Funds. He received an honorary Doctor of Science Degree from the University of Portland (Oregon) in 1965 and an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Providence College in 1967.

He was a member of many organizations including the Aeronautics Astronautics Institute of America, the Royal Aeronautical Society, the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the New York Yacht Club, the English Speaking Union and the Naval War College Foundation.

Hayward received many honors and decoration during his naval career. He was a recipient of the Order of the British Empire, the Brazilian Southern Cross, the French Legion of Honor, Knight Commander of Italy, the Silver Star, the Distinguished Service Medal. the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Legion of Merit, the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, six Air Medals, the W. Blandy Ordnance Medal, the European Campaign Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal, the American Campaign Medal the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, the Korean Campaign Medal, the Vietnam Campaign Medal and the Second Nicaraguan Campaign Medal. His civilian awards were the W.S. Parsons Scientific Award, the L.T. E. Thompson Medal in Engineering, the R.D. Conrad Scientific Medal and the Silver Wings Award.

Hayward manied Leila Hyer of Pensacola, Florida in October 1932. They had five children: Mary, Leila, Victoria, Jennifer and Joh. Admiral Hayward resided in Atlantic Beach, Florida, and Newport, Rhode Island.

Admiral Hayward died of cancer in Atlantic Beach, Florida, on May 23, 1999, at the age of ninety. He is survived by his children and a sister, Marjorie Madey of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Funeral Services were held in Jacksonville, Florida on May 28. A burial service was held on June 14 in Arlington National Cemetery and a memorial service on June 19 in St Mary's Church in Newport, RI.