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While he is barely remembered today, his generous generosity left a lasting mark at MIT and Boston. Hayden was the president of the MIT Alumni Association and a “life member” of the MIT Corporation throughout his life. One of six people whose name adorns the entrance to the East Campus residence hall is the result of a $100,000 gift he made to support the residence’s construction. He also paid for the construction of MIT classrooms and laboratories on the new Cambridge campus. Before his death, the $150,000 gift he gave to purchase and house the Zeiss projector, first Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

When Hayden died in 1937, he left nearly his entire fortune—$50 million (about $1 billion in today’s dollars)—to the Charles Hayden Foundation, which later went on to fund the MIT Hayden Library and the Hayden Planetarium at the Boston Museum. it did. Science and the Charles Hayden Memorial Building at Boston University. The foundation, which still exists, is limited to giving grants serving children and youth ages 5 to 21 in the New York and Boston metropolitan areas. It provided more than $16 million in grants in 2021.

“For a businessman, time is money, but they don’t seem to know it,” said Hayden. “They pinch the bullets and waste thousands of dollars’ worth of time.”

Hayden’s generosity benefited his hometown the most. Born in Boston in 1870 to a successful shoe manufacturer, he grew up in Back Bay and graduated from English High School, which was then known for educating boys who wanted careers in business and engineering. He was the 24th initiate in MIT’s Theta Xi fraternity and was “active in organizing a movement” to Boylston Place in March 1888, according to Qiong Zhou Huang, the fellowship president and current department secretary.

After graduating with a degree in MIT’s “General Course”, Hayden embarked on a “grand tour” of Europe (not uncommon at the time) and then spent a year apprenticeship with a brokerage firm. He and his 31-year-old partner, Galen Stone, each borrowed $20,000 from their father and opened the private banking firm Hayden, Stone & Co. in 1892.

Hayden had learned about the growing importance of electricity and the critical role of copper from his course at MIT, so he and Stone spent $25 and bought a list of individual investors holding copper holdings in the US. They sent each of them an investment letter. The firm quickly had a growing list of private clients – clients who did a great job with their expert advice and analysis. Hayden opened the Stone, New York office in 1906 and expanded into other areas. Although most of its records were destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, it is known that Joseph Kennedy (future ambassador and father of John F. Kennedy) worked there in 1919 and the firm kept several bond dealers at once. while the profession was largely closed to women. It was Stone who contributed the funds that Wellesley College used to build Green Hall and the iconic Galen Stone Tower. When Stone died in 1926, Hayden assumed full control of the firm.

Not content with being a passive investor, Hayden joined the boards of the companies he funded and took an active role in their management. He invested in all kinds of technology. In 1929, he helped organize the Americas Aviation Corporation, which became Pan Am in 1931. He helped lay the foundations for the consolidation of New York City’s subway lines. He eventually was on the boards of more than 80 companies. He achieved this in part by scheduling back-to-back meetings in his office and making quick decisions. “Time is money for a businessman, but they don’t seem to know that,” he said. “They pinch the bullets and waste thousands of dollars’ worth of time.”

It’s clear from the recordings that Hayden also enjoys having a good time. In 1914 he joined a syndicate to build a yacht to compete for the America’s Cup. To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Rock Island railroad system in 1923, a special train departed Chicago “in piloted” by railroad chairman Hayden. “As the gala train left La Salle street station, beautiful girls in mid-nineteenth-century designer dresses waved goodbye from the observation car,” reports a report in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. He enjoyed the fine arts, and in 1928 paid $52,000 for an attractive self-portrait by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. He was the director of the Association Against Prohibition, which officially dissolved on December 5, 1933, at a party in Waldorf, after the enactment of the 21st Amendment, which (again) legalized the consumption of alcohol in the United States.

Hayden’s wealth and influence was so great that in 1930 James W. Gerard, a former ambassador and a major player in Democratic Party politics, named him one of the “64 rulers of the United States too busy to hold political office.” But decide who does it.” It wasn’t a compliment: Hayden was a staunch supporter of President Herbert Hoover, who returned the favor by opening the Waldorf Astoria in 1931 and moving there in 1932 after losing to Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Still, Hayden deeply believed in the importance of service to others. In 1932, he was the featured evening speaker at his high school’s 110th anniversary dinner, presenting a bronze statue depicting a warrior supporting a warrior stripped of his armor in battle. It is written on its pedestal that “Service to humanity is honor and success”.

Hayden died in a New York hospital in 1937, the victim of an infection he contracted during minor surgery. His brother, J. Willard Hayden, became president of the newly formed Charles Hayden Foundation and was elected to the MIT Corporation, taking his brother’s seat. “Other institutions heavily supported by Hayden’s philanthropists include: MIT (Charles Hayden Memorial Library); Northeastern, Brandeis, Columbia, New York and Boston Universities; and the Science Museum (Hayden Planetarium),” wrote MIT president James Killian, upon Willard’s death in 1955. Both Willard and Charles are buried in the Mount Auburn Cemetery.

As for the Hayden firm, Stone has joined Shearson, Hammill & Co. as part of a wave of industry consolidations. continued with private customers until 1974, when it merged with Today this company is part of Shearson/American Express.

Charles Hayden continues to use gold-plated rivets to this day in many ways—except that instead of strengthening the steel, they enrich the lives of the young men and women touched by his enduring generosity.