Hayden begins with his life in Windsor, Connecticut, his academic life at Clark College, and his first employment with insurance companies in Hartford. He served in clinical laboratories and other assignments in the US Army Sanitation Corps during World War I. He joined the Fisk Rubber Company, where he gained experience in rubber compounding and quality control. Hayden then moved to the Organic Chemicals Department of DuPont, where he worked in screening chemicals for use in the rubber industry, the development of neoprene, and became Manager of the Rubber Laboratory. He moved into Technical Sales management, Rubber Chemicals Division, and became Assistant Director of Sales in the Elastomer Chemicals Department. During the interview he talks about colleagues he knew and friends he made at Fisk, DuPont and in the rubber industry.