[2][3] During his childhood his family moved frequently because of his stepfather's acting career; as a result he attended over sixteen different high schools before receiving his diploma.

[4] Upon receiving his Ph.D. in 1952, Hayes decided to move into industry, and found a position at Hughes Aircraft, where he programmed a computer to fly an airplane.

[4] In 1954, he began working at the National Cash Register Company, and a year later he moved to Magnavox Research Laboratories.

[4] His work at Magnavox was related to important developments in information storage and retrieval, such as the Minicard and the Magnacard systems.

[9][6] At UCLA he served as dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science from 1974 to 1989, and became professor emeritus in 1991.