[1] After high school, Hayward attended the University of Nebraska, where he was prominent in athletics and a member of Phi Delta Theta.

[3] In the 1910 United States House of Representatives election, Hayward was the Republican candidate for Nebraska's 1st congressional district.

Upon his return, he settled in New York City and began practicing law there as a member of the firm Wing & Russell on 14 Wall Street from 1911 to 1912.

[5] When America entered World War I, Hayward transferred himself into active duty in the National Guard as a colonel of Infantry.

General Pershing, under whom Hayward served as a cadet at the University of Nebraska, had the regiment fight with the French.

They fought at the front for 191 days, longer than any other American regiment, and participated in the Champagne-Marne, Aisne-Marne, and Meuse-Argonne campaigns.

In 1926 and 1927, he and his stepson Philip Manwaring Plant hunted big game in Africa and gave a number of trophies to the Museum of Natural History.

[7] Hayward was a member of Phi Delta Phi, Theta Nu Epsilon, the National Geographic Society, the New York State Bar Association, the New York City Bar Association, the United Spanish War Veterans, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Union League Club, the University Club of New York, the Atlantic Yacht Club,[8] the Naval and Military Order of the Spanish War, and the American Legion.