Arthur Dwain Hayes

ARTHUR DWAIN HAYES

  Funeral services for longtime Cortez resident, Arthur Dwain Hayes, will be held at 10 a.m. on Monday, January 15, 2024, at Lighthouse Baptist Church, with Pastor Bruce Burkett officiating. Interment will follow at Cortez Cemetery.

  Arthur Dwain Hayes was born in Scottsbluff, Nebraska on September 9, 1935, to John and Elizabeth Hayes.  His parents moved to Denver when he was 3 years old.  He attended West High School in Denver where he played baseball and fell in love with the sport, which would lead to opportunities to further his love of the game later in life. At age 17 (with his father’s written consent) Arthur joined the Navy Reserves in 1953 and in 1954-1957 served as active duty on board repair ships, traveling the world.

  Arthur met his future wife at a small church in Englewood, Colorado and Arthur and JoAnn Garner were married on August 30, 1957.

  After being Honorably Discharged Arthur returned to Denver and went to work for a large construction company. While there, he was seriously injured in an equipment failure accident, and thus while recovering from the injury, went to the University of Northern Colorado getting his B.A. Degree with a Business Minor in Industrial Education and would further advance his studies during summer months at Northern Arizona University. His two daughters were born in Greeley, Colorado while he was earning his degree.

  His first teaching job was at a Job Core Center in Wisconsin but was only there for a short time before returning to Colorado.  He was next offered a job in Tombstone, Arizona as the high school “Shop” teacher and where he started and coached their first baseball team. But Art and JoAnn became homesick for Colorado, so with their two young daughters returned to Colorado in 1972 where he was offered another high school “Shop” teaching job in Dolores, Colorado. While there, he also became the high school baseball coach. During their time in Dolores, their son Christopher was born.

While still in Dolores he was offered a job at the new Vocational-Technical School just outside Cortez where he taught “post-secondary” (construction) classes for 22 years.  He continued building homes, remodeling homes and different construction activities for several more years before actually “retiring”. 

  Arthur was preceded in death by his wife, JoAnn; his daughter, Lori Hayes; his brother, Arnold Hayes; and his parents, John and Elizabeth.

  He is survived by his daughter, Rene’ Weiss (Brad) of Sandia Park, New Mexico; his son, Christopher (Jamie) of Peoria, Arizona; 8 grandchildren, Ricky Garcia of Cortez, Tyrell Garcia (MaryJo) of Cortez, Zachary Weiss (Danielle) of Porter, Texas, Daniel Weiss (Alysa) of Aurora, Colorado, Johnathan Dufur of Cortez, Jordan Jeans-Hancock (Nikolus) of Taylor, Arizona, Chelsea Leatherwood (Kieran) of Cortez, and Becca Hayes of Chandler, Arizona; and by 13 great-grandchildren, and 1 great, great grandchild.