Joseph Andrew Hays

Joseph Andrew Andy Hays was born in New Castle, Indiana, on June 3, 1930. He graduated from James Whitcomb Riley High School in South Bend, Indiana, in 1948. Hays spent a year studying at Purdue University, before enrolling at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. He received his B.S. in Journalism from Utah State in 1953 and then enlisted in the United States Air Force, serving two years. Hays then enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law, where he received his LL.B. in 1959. After law school, Hays was hired as a junior member of the labor relations staff of Kennecott Copper in Salt Lake City. Kennecott soon recognized Hays’ skills as a communicator and he quickly rose to senior positions within the labor law group and corporate relations staff. Hays temporarily left Kennecott in 1965 for a two-year stint as the Director of Public Affairs for the Peace Corps. He returned to Kennecott and served in its New York offices as an executive in labor and government relations. In 1969, he became a Vice President of the New York Stock Exchange. From 1976 until 1983, he was Vice President for Corporate Affairs for the American Can Company, before being hired by Chicago’s Tribune Company. Hays spent 13 years with the company as their Senior Executive for Corporate Relations and as a member of the executive committee. Hays retired from the Tribune in 1996, but continued to serve as a consultant to the CEO of the Tribune Company. He also established the Hays Group, a consulting firm that provides counsel to companies on communications policy and enhancing shareholder value and to no-for-profit organizations for strategic planning and fund raising. He retired from Hays Group in 2010. Hays has served as a member of the Board of Visitors of the Utah State University Department of Journalism, and helped to establish the law school’s Harry Pratter Professorship in 1998. Joseph Andrew Hays was inducted into the Indiana University School of Law Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 2001.https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/notablealumni/1149/thumbnail.jp