Carl Hayden - After Office

After Office

Hayden announced his retirement on May 6, 1968, saying "Among other things that fifty-six years in Congress have taught me is that contemporary events need contemporary men. Time actually makes specialists of us all. When a house is built there is a moment for the foundation, another for the walls, the roof and so on. Arizona's foundation includes fast highways, adequate electric power, and abundant water, and these foundations have been laid. It is time for a new building crew to report, so I have decided to retire from office at the close of my term this year." Hayden recommended long-term aide Roy Elson to succeed him. Elson lost his election bid to Senator Barry Goldwater.

Following his retirement from Congress, Hayden returned to Tempe and set up an office in Arizona State University's Charles Trumbull Hayden library. In addition to organizing the papers he collected during his career, he also wrote a biography on his father and worked on a project documenting the lives of Arizona's pioneers. He became ill in the middle of January 1972 and died on January 25, 1972. Speakers at Hayden's memorial service included Goldwater and President Lyndon B. Johnson.

In response to his long tenure in Congress, multiple projects have been named after him. On September 29, 1957, Phoenix Union High School District dedicated Carl Hayden High School. This was followed by the Maricopa County Democratic Committee lobbying for Glen Canyon Dam to be named Hayden Dam, a move that Hayden personally opposed. In 1969 the visitor center overlooking Glen Canyon Dam was named after the long-term senator. Naming efforts even continued after Hayden's death with the US Department of Agriculture's Carl Hayden Bee Research Center being named in 1978 followed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in 1987. A bust of Hayden was added to the Senate sculpture collection and placed in the Russell Senate Office Building in 1986.