Dr. Donald E. Hayden

BY Staff Reports
Thursday, January 10, 2013
1/10/13 at 7:53 AM

Dr. Donald E. Hayden, 97 of Tulsa. Retired Dean of Liberal Arts at the University of Tulsa died Sunday. He was born Aug. 28, 1915 in Blairstown, Mo., a farming community east of Kansas City to Frank Langston and Georgia May Hayden. While in high school there, he met his future wife – Mary Frances Dick – who was his English teacher. They were married on Sept. 12, 1939. He received his bachelor and master degrees from the University of Missouri at Columbia and later a Ph.D. from Syracuse University. In 1942 he began his teaching career as head of the English department at Westbrook Junior College in Portland, Maine. In addition to his teaching role, he took jobs as an inspector at the South Portland Shipyard, overseeing work on various naval vessels during World War II and as a deliveryman on a milk route. In 1947 he began a long career with the University of Tulsa, first as a professor of English and later as Dean of Liberal Arts and has been credited with being the “principal architect” of the internationally known Graduate Faculty of Modern Letters. He was instrumental in the creation of the TU chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. In addition to his endeavors at TU, he was involved in several civic affairs. He was chairman of the Tulsa Commission for the United Nations, chairman of the Tulsa Community Relations Commission, vice president of the National Conference of Christians and Jews (NCCJ) as well as president of the Tulsa Psychiatric Foundation. A Wordsworth scholar, he authored “After Conflict, Quiet – a Study of Wordsworth.” He also was the author of a series of five monograph publications from the University of Tulsa documenting travels of Wordworth in the British Isles and Europe. Survivors include a son Donald Jr. and his wife Jane Ruth of Tulsa; a daughter, Elizabeth Ann of Norway, Maine; four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife in 2001 and son-in-law Christopher Miller in 2005. A memorial service is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Friday, at First Christian Church under the direction of Ninde Funeral and Cremation. Share memories at www.ninde.com. In lieu of flowers friends are asked to contribute to their favorite charity or First Christian Church. www.ninde.com This obituary was published in the Tulsa World on 1/10/2013.

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