A Personal Note from the Chief Executive
Michael Hayden, also known as Micheál or Mick, sadly died on 26th November at the age of just over 89 following a short illness. His death took many of us by surprise as he had been in good health until very recently.
Michael was an active man to the last. He equally loved his golf and his Academy activities and had a very wide range of friends and acquaintances, many dating back to his earliest days with the ESB. He was a father and grandfather and also a widower having lost his wife Anne in 2018.
A past President of the Academy in more recent times he occupied the suitably sui generis position of Special Advisor.
I first met Michael in 2017. I soon learned that his initial somewhat forbidding mien actually masked a warm and engaging human being. And one of penetrating intelligence.
That’s not to say that he did not deal in certainties – he knew his own mind and expressed it freely. We became friends. I enjoyed his company, welcomed his advice and respected his judgment.
Of course we didn’t agree on everything – far from it! But Michael was the kind of person with whom you could have strong, even very strong, disagreements, and still not fall out.
His passion for the Academy was one that he communicated in word and deed in uniquely unambiguous terms to all who dealt with him. He was hugely ambitious for our success and a firm believer in our potential. He drove himself and inspired the rest of us to achieve.
Covid restrictions were the bane of his life and he never fully adjusted to the “remote” nature of so much pandemic and post-pandemic life. He thrived on personal contact.
His death is a serious loss to the Academy – he and others of his generation were the driving force behind the foundation of the organization and their continuing commitment has helped to steer it over the past 25 years. Whatever success it has had is theirs.
The challenge now for us is to ensure that the baton is passed progressively to a new generation so that the flame he helped to light and nurtured over the years will keep burning for many more years to come. That would be the most fitting memorial for Michael.
Rest in Peace, Michael, it was a privilege to have known you.
Gabriel