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Richard “Skip” Hayward’s vision and determination led the Mashantucket Pequots to rebuild their nation and establish many successful enterprises, including Mashantucket High Stakes Bingo, Foxwoods Resort Casino, Pequot Pharmaceutical Network, Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center, Pequot River Shipworks, Fox Navigation, Pequot Hotel Group, Randall’s Ordinary, and Lake of Isles golf course.
For his lifelong contributions to Mashantucket and Indian Country, Skip became the inaugural recipient of the Tribe’s first Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.
When Richard A. “Skip” Hayward was elected chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe in 1975, only 214 acres remained of the Tribe’s historic Mashantucket land in southeastern Connecticut…the oldest continually occupied Indian reservation within what would become the continental United States.
An “Industry Pioneer” inductee to the American Gaming Association’s Hall of Fame and recipient of the Mashantucket Pequots’ first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award, Hayward’s leadership arose from humble beginnings and an extraordinary vision for community development.
In 1977, Hayward established the first Tribal housing authority in the state of Connecticut, and built the first on-reservation housing development with a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Since several early business ideas lacked the revenue generating capacity to provide economic stability for his tribal community, upon winning federal recognition in 1983, Hayward championed the construction of the Mashantucket Pequot High Stakes Bingo Hall, which opened in 1986.
Following the Bingo success, Hayward secured a $60 million investment from Malaysian billionaire Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong, with which the first Native American casino was built—Foxwoods Resort Casino—which resulted in hundreds of construction jobs and more than ten thousand employment positions during an early nineties’ economic recession.
Hayward’s vision and determination led the Mashantucket Pequots to rebuild their nation and establish many successful enterprises, including Mashantucket High Stakes Bingo, Foxwoods Resort Casino, Pequot Pharmaceutical Network, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, Pequot River Shipworks, Fox Navigation, Pequot Hotel Group, Randall’s Ordinary, and Lake of Isles golf course, to name a few.
Hayward also spearheaded the Tribe’s community infrastructure development, which included housing, a community center, public safety and public works facilities, a wastewater treatment plant, a child development center, a tribal court, and much more. From 214 acres, the Mashantucket reservation grew to nearly 1,500 acres of land held in trust by the federal government, and is designated a National Historic Landmark. On November 18 1988, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Donald Hodel, awarded Hayward the National Historic Preservation award.
Also under Hayward’s leadership, the Tribe commenced extensive research on its history and culture, which included numerous historical and archeological projects, partnerships with prestigious universities, the Smithsonian Institute, and famed underwater archeologist and Titanic discoverer Robert Ballard, to name a few. The Tribe’s $193 million Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center opened on August 11, 1998, and continues to be the largest tribally owned and operated facility of its kind. The Tribe also donated $10 million to the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Indian in 1994, and $5 million to the Mystic Marinelife Aquarium in 1996.
Throughout his career, Hayward has held the chairmanship of many tribal organizations, including the Tribe’s Indian Housing Authority, Economic Development and Planning Committee, and the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center Board of Directors. He also served as chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Gaming Enterprise Board of Directors.
Hayward also represented his Tribe with a number of prominent organizations, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the United South and Eastern Tribes. Mr. Hayward served as chairman of the Board of Directors of the Native American Rights Fund in Boulder, Colorado, from 1988 to 1994, and continued serving on the organization’s Executive Board for many years. Hayward also served as a committee member for the 1995 Special Olympics World Games held in Connecticut, to which the Tribe donated $2 million.
In 1994, the University of Connecticut, Eastern Connecticut State University, and Roger Williams College in Rhode Island all paid tribute to Hayward’s foresight and leadership by awarding him honorary doctorate degrees. In 1995, Hayward received the Jay Silverheels Award from the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development for achieving personal and professional success while making significant contributions to Native people.
In 1998, he was honored at a celebration for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian for his contribution to the preservation of American Indian culture. Hayward was also recognized in 1999 at the International Maritime Hall of Fame Awards Dinner at the United Nations in New York City for his leadership in the resurgence of American shipbuilding using new technologies through his visionary introduction of high-speed ferry service in the northeastern United States—an award presented by the late Honorable Daniel K. Inouye, United States Senator, Hawaii.
Richard A. “Skip” Hayward served as the Tribe’s Chairman until 1998, and then Vice Chairman until his retirement in 2004. He and his wife, Carol, live in Mashantucket.
Throughout much of the nineties, Foxwoods Resort Casino remained the largest and most profitable casino in the western hemisphere, influencing the entire gaming industry through Hayward’s unique and visionary design concepts, which were never done before. Today, Foxwoods remains one of North America’s largest casinos, and still the “Wonder of the Connecticut Woods.”