During his distinguished career, Dr. James Rogers Hayward had a profound impact on people's lives - patients, faculty members, students, and members of his family.
The son of a dentist (Dr. Roy George Hayward, Class of 1911), James Hayward was born December 16, 1920 in Detroit and attended Central High School.
He earned his DDS degree from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry in 1944 and three years later, a master's degree in oral surgery.
As a graduate student, he was a clinical instructor. Between 1947 and 1950, he taught one day a week at the School of Dentistry as an assistant professor and maintained a private practice in Detroit as an oral surgeon.
In 1950, he entered the U.S. Army Dental Corps and was head of oral surgery at Fort Carson Army Hospital in Colorado Springs, Colorado
Young Department Chair
Two years later, he was invited back to the School of Dentistry to chair the Department of Oral Surgery following the death of Dr. John Kemper. Only 32-years-old at the time, he was one of the youngest persons to hold a department chairmanship.
In 1956, Dr. Hayward became a professor of dentistry at the U-M School of Dentistry and seven years later became a professor of dentistry in surgery at the Medical School. He was also director of the Section of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in the Department of Hospital Dentistry at the University Hospitals and served as director of the Cleft Palate Project.
Dr. Hayward retired in 1982 following 34 years as a faculty member and 30 years as chair of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.
He has been married for 58 years to Jane Louise Slocum (DDS 1942). They are the parents of three children, two of whom are in the dental profession.
Son James S. (Class of 1973) is director of the Marquette County Health Department's dental clinics in Marquette Michigan.
Daughter Martha Hayward Sparks (Class of 1973) practiced dental hygiene in Negaunee and Ishpeming, Michigan and Bonita Springs, Florida before retiring to South Carolina in 1999.
Son Ralph is a warehouse supervisor for a beverage company in Ann Arbor and lives in Whitmore Lake.
Family Memories
"I remember how proud my grandfather was of his son, my dad, and how my grandfather's face would beam when talking about my dad's professional achievements," said Dr. James S. Hayward.
He recalled other memories of what it was like growing up with a world-renowned father.
"As children, it was difficult for us to eat meat at the dinner table as we would listen to him recount the details of his surgeries that day. But on the other hand, we had an opportunity to travel to Europe, for example, because dad would lecture or be involved in work organizing the International Association of Oral Surgeons."
In both travel and serving guests at parties at the Hayward home, "we children had the opportunity to meet many of the past, present, and future giants in oral and maxillofacial surgery. Some were very influential in developing our minds," Hayward said.
Dr. James Hayward (left) talks with President Gerald Ford (U-M 1935) and Dr. Allan Levy (DDS 1961) at a Congressional reception during the American Society of Oral Surgeons annual meeting in October 1975. Ford congratulated Hayward, recipient of the Gies Award, for his outstanding contributions to oral surgery.