Nike has lost one of its original employees.
Del Hayes, a critical member of the team that eventually built Nike, has died at the age of 82.
Hayes was Nike co-founder Phil Knight’s boss at one time, when the two worked as accountants with Price Waterhouse. It was Knight who brought Hayes on board with his idea to start Blue Ribbon Sports, the company that would eventually become Nike.
Knight wrote at length about Hayes in his recent book, “Shoe Dog,” with colorful descriptions of his former boss, employee, board member and longtime friend.
“Nothing gave him more pleasure than laying waste to a hoagie and a bottle of vodka, unless it was doing both while studying a spreadsheet,” Knight wrote. “He looked at numbers the way the poet looks at clouds, the way the geologist looks at rocks.”
Hayes became a vital member of Knight’s team at Blue Ribbon Sports, guiding the fledgling company through its tumultuous and financially precarious early days. Knight wrote, “Day after day I watched Hayes do something I never thought possible: He made accounting an art.”
In a statement released by Nike today, Knight said, “He was married for over fifty years to the same woman, the wonderful Sandi, and had three beautiful children.” Hayes and his wife lived in Newberg for several years, but eventually moved to Salem.
Knight ended his statement saying, “He was my friend for 54 years, and my heart is heavy.”
