William was born on March 7, 1935, in Newark, NJ, to Alice (Osteen) Hayes and Ferd Ralph Hayes. Ferd was a postal inspector and Alice was a stay-at-home mom. “Billy’s” beloved brother, Don, was six and a half years older.
Bill’s earliest memories are of Silver Spring, Md, where he lived until 1943. He was in first grade when World War II broke out and he always remembered reading the headlines in the Times-Herald newspaper. Halfway through third grade the family moved to San Francisco, where Ferd became a Lt. Commander in the Navy and headed up the Fleet Post Office for the Pacific. Bill always referred to this period as the happiest time of his childhood.
Not long after the war ended, the Hayes family briefly moved to Washington D.C., and Ferd resumed his civilian role of postal inspector. The family’s final move was to Charlotte, NC, at that time a booming city of 100,000. In high school there, Bill was an avid baritone and actor in plays and musicals. After graduation, he earned his Associate of Arts at Lees McRae College, then received his bachelor’s degree in 1956 from the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill.
Bill did graduate work from 1956-1958 at Swarthmore College, where he met and married first wife, Hannah Metzger; they shared two children, Katherine “Kate” and Joshua. He was a psychology instructor at Kenyon College from 1960-1961 and was awarded a Ph.D. in psychology by Princeton University in 1961. Subsequently, Bill did two years of post-doctoral research in neurology under Robert Doty at the Center for Brain Research of University of Rochester, New York, and then taught for ten years in the psychology department at the University of New York at Buffalo. With the encouragement of former SUNY/Buffalo colleague David Hogberg, Bill came to Albion College as the chairman of the psychology department in the fall of 1973. Just one of his accomplishments at Albion was the development of their first Human Sexuality course. He also earned a certificate in the Special Program in Alcohol and Drug Abuse from Western Michigan University which included a 300-hour internship in the Older Adult Treatment Program at Chelsea Hospital; that led him to develop a course on drugs and life for the Albion College curriculum. A recovering alcoholic, Bill was sober for the last 38 years of his life.
After a number of years on his own, Bill married his second wife, Michelle Mueller. He loved experiencing the evolved hands-on fathering of their son, Hayes August Mueller, who was born some 30 years after his first children which meant that the father-to-be was actually welcomed into the delivery room. After retiring from Albion College in 2000, he became a devoted ‘classroom dad,’ and skied, roller-bladed, and learned all about soccer with his little boy. He was a passionate reader, loved films and music, and enjoyed cooking and traveling.
An avid lifelong golfer, he shared those interests with both of his sons who both say that those golf games (some thirty years apart!) out at Tomac Woods are some of their favorite times with their dad. Giving up golf after his joints were giving out was really hard for Bill, but he continued to watch golf on television, as well as soccer matches, which were there for him until the end.
Always a pacifist, Bill’s spiritual life was guided by the Quaker philosophies, which he shared with dear friend Robert Piper.
Bill is survived by his beloved family: wife Michelle Mueller, with whom he shared 38 years of a truly loving life partnership; their son, Hayes Mueller; Bill’s older children, Kate (Tom Franks) of Brattleboro, VT, and Josh (Alice Lockhart) of Seattle, WA; grandchildren Benjamin Franks, Sam Lockhart and Eleanor Hayes; and nephews Michael, Mark, and Kevin Hayes and their families. He will be truly missed by ‘surrogate’ daughter, Courtney Watkins of Albion, and his ‘surrogate’ granddaughter, Audrianna Harris of Albion.
A Celebration of Life event is being held on Saturday, October 21, from noon until 2 p.m., at the Ismon House, 300 S. Clinton St., Albion, MI. The informal gathering will share anecdotes and accolades about Bill over a casual luncheon, and all are welcome.
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