A Celebration of
Steve Hayden
And His
Remarkable Life
May 21, 1947—August 27, 2025
For all of us who benefitted from your talent, your passion, your patience, your ideas, your kindness and your forgiveness.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Steve is a modest person, so somebody
else has to put this all down because he would never do it himself. —Chris Wall
Adios, Mr Hayden.
(Steve) gives fantastically entertaining and educational speeches, but he is generally uncomfortable with the limelight because he knows that the Crown of Genius comes with the Shoes of You Asshole. —Chris Wall
One Club Video
AAF Hall of Fame Induction
Ad Club Video
Interlochen Commencement Video
A life in three parts
1
2
3
On December 30, 2011, Steve Hayden quietly retired from Ogilvy & Mather after 43 years in the advertising business. For many of us, this was a profound milestone that almost passed unnoticed. There was no official announcement. No fanfare. No gold watch. It was like a live event unfolding in slow motion – our minds couldn’t quite register what was happening. Thank God we snapped out of it.
What began as a simple note from Chris Wall sharing some personal thoughts and making a few people aware of the occasion turned into an outpouring of support, love, admiration and humor that continues on. This book is a collection of those responses, along with some of the content and memorabilia that inspired them. From all of us who have been touched, inspired, hired, rehired, helped, healed, rescued, encouraged and saved by Mr. Hayden, we offer these simple words. Thanks, Steve. Seriously.
is a model that works like a clock. You start in the bottom left corner with the good stuff, move clockwise through success, overconfidence, mistakes, and collapse, and eventually end up back where you began. You can apply it to companies, governments, organizations of all types, even individuals.
How it works | About
Hayden’s Mandala
(A smattering of Steve’s work) …proof that creativity counts, imagination matters and that advertising does not have to be a blot on the Accomplishments of All Mankind. –Chris Wall
Let me emphasize this in contemporary terms: Steve is a X%#$* all great writer. —Chris Wall
If you have a particularly good example (a brief, an email, a speech) please share. We’ll include it here.
Everything flourishes here, four posters commissioned by Steve — the only things he hung behind his chair in his Ogilvy office at Worldwide Plaza.
For anyone wishing to make a contribution in Steve’s memory, Interlochen and Damon Runyon were especially meaningful to him.
Interlochen Arts Academy blends a world-class arts education with exceptional academics, creating a launchpad for future innovators and leaders.
At the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, we fund high-risk, high-reward cancer research. We identify and enable young scientists who are brilliant, brave and bold enough to go where others haven’t.