Joseph Orlo Hayward

Joseph Orlo Hayward passed away Dec. 14, 2021, quietly at home, with family and his caregiver at his side.

Joseph (Big Joe) Hayward was born July 17, 1927, in Florence, the first child of Orlo Edward Hayward and Estella Dolleanna (Woodard) Hayward.

Joe’s father was a lighthouse keeper, and the family resided at various lighthouse stations on the Oregon and Washington coast. When Joe reached school age, his father was transferred to Cape Blanco to be the head keeper.

Joe attended school there until the family moved to Friday Harbor, Washington, where Joe graduated from high school at the age of 17. Upon graduation in 1944, Joe joined the U.S. Navy.

After basic training, he was assigned to the naval air station in San Diego as an aviation storekeeper. He was always good with numbers, and was a master of inventory control and management. He was honorably discharged in 1945 at the close of World War II.

He met his wife, Hellen L. Demetrakikes, on a blind date. They fell in love and were married on Nov. 12, 1948. They had two sons together, Richard and Christopher. They were married for 59 years, until Hellen passed away in 2008.

From an early age, Joe loved automobiles. Living in isolation at lighthouse stations, he learned to drive at the age of 8. At the age of 12, he traded his nearly-new bicycle for a 1929 Buick that ran so poorly he barely got it home.

His father was not happy, and told him he made a foolish purchase. Joe was determined to prove his father wrong. There was a machine shop at the lighthouse station, and Joe put the Buick in the shop, and tore down the straight-eight engine and completely rebuilt it. When he finished, the car ran like new.

After his discharge from the Navy, he returned to the family home in Milwaukie. He set out to find a job in the automobile business, and was hired by Miller Motors, a Studebaker dealership, in Oregon City, as a parts clerk.

He excelled, and moved through the ranks, becoming the parts manager, then the service manager. He migrated to the sales floor, where he had great success, and moved up to eventually become the general manager.

After 16 years with Miller Motors, he took a job in sales at Frank Chevrolet in Portland. He went from there to Carmichael Oldsmobile in Beaverton, where he was the used car manager. After a short stint as the general sales manager at Fredricks Chevrolet in McMinnville, he accepted the position of general sales manager at Carr Chevrolet in Beaverton.

He remained there until 1973, when he founded Joe Hayward Ford in Dallas. When Joe arrived in Dallas, he immediately got involved in the community.

He sponsored and helped promote and operate the area’s March of Dimes walkathon in 1974. He was active in the Dallas Lions Club for many years. He also often was a judge of classic cars at the Dallas Rotary Breakfast in the Park car show. For many years he drove his classic 1962 Cadillac Coupe Deville convertible in the Dallas Krazy Dayz parade.

Joe sponsored many local sports teams, and was a season ticket holder for Dallas High School football for many years. He and the Hayward family were among the inaugural inductees of the Dallas High Athletics Hall of Fame.

The Ford dealership was a family operation from the beginning. Joe was the dealer/general manager, and Hellen was the office manager. Rich and Chris both worked in the dealership in various roles, and the dealership prospered.

Joe was well respected in the business, especially his knowledge of the used car market. He was a weekly fixture at the Portland Auto Auction, buying and selling cars for the dealership.

In the 1990s the family began looking for a second dealership to grow the company. In 1997 Joe, Rich and Chris purchased Ocean Crest Chevrolet Cadillac Buick Oldsmobile in Astoria. They kept the name Ocean Crest with the lighthouse logo, due to Joe’s lighthouse experiences growing up.

In 2004 the dealership was moved to its current location in Warrenton. Oldsmobile was discontinued by General Motors in 2000, and they were able to pick up GMC in 2013. Joe retired from the business in 2015, when he sold the Ford dealership after 42 years in business.

Joe’s hobbies included hunting, fishing, boating and traveling in his motor home. Every year, after the Fourth of July, he would bring his boat down river from its berth at the Columbia River Yacht Club to Hammond for salmon fishing. He really enjoyed taking family and friends out over the bar for a day of fishing. He taught all of his kids and grandkids how to fish.

He and Hellen were active members of the yacht club, and enjoyed the cruises and social events up and down the Columbia. They enjoyed traveling in their motor home, visiting national parks in the western U.S. and Canada with friends from the yacht club.

Joe was well known for his card-playing skills. He said he learned to play the different card games at the lighthouse station, playing with the adults who needed an extra person for a game. He had a regular poker game every week with several of his friends in Dallas. He and Hellen were also avid bridge players, and played in several bridge groups.

Joe is survived by his sisters, Phyllis Fitch and Jean Wilkinson, both of Prineville; son, Richard, of Salem; son and daughter-in-law, Chris and Jeannette Hayward, of Warrenton; grandchildren, Nicholas Hayward, of Corvallis, Lindsay (Derek) Wielkapolski, of Portland, Matthew (Brenna) Hayward, of Duvall, Washington, Amber (Anthony) Hill, of Warrenton, and LesleAnn (Christopher) Story, of Portland; and great-grandchildren, Olivia, Isla and Theo Wielkapolski, Calla and Orlo Hayward and Antionette and Lincoln Hill.

A viewing was held Dec. 22 at Caldwell’s Luce-Layton Mortuary in Astoria.

A celebration of life is planned for the spring, with details to follow on the Ocean Crest Chevrolet Buick GMC Cadillac Facebook page.