Laird Hayes named Newport Beach’s Citizen of the Year

Newport Beach resident Laird Hayes recently kicked around the idea of starting a new social group with his longtime friend, Tom Johnson.

“We’ve been friends forever,” Hayes said of Johnson, a former Daily Pilot publisher who now publishes the online newspaper and community forum Stu News. “Recently, I read this article about these old guys that get together over at Pierce College to just talk about sports, so I thought, ‘Hey, we should do that.’

Johnson agreed.

“So, we meet over at OASIS [Senior Center in Newport Beach] and we had our first meeting in July — about 20 people,” Hayes said. “Our next meeting was last Tuesday. I show up about 20 minutes before 3 p.m. and we’re scheduled from 3 to 5 p.m.

“And I see all these extra people, and I was thinking, ‘Wow, this idea’s really taken off!’ and I knew most of them. Not all of them were real sports people, but I thought, ‘Hey, what the heck.’ I had no clue.”

He said he was surveying the crowd and gloating over what he assumed was the wild success of his idea to start the sports talks. After the meeting got underway, Steve Rosansky, president and chief executive of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce sprang into action. He stood up holding two footballs, Hayes recalled.

“He says that one’s signed by Mr. Irrelevant, and I was vaguely interested, so they passed the ball around,” Hayes recalled.

Then Rosansky approached Hayes directly with the second ball. Hayes turned the ball over and saw it had his name and the words “Citizen of the Year.”

To say he was surprised would be putting it mildly.

The Citizen of the Year award is determined by previous citizens of the year, and dates back to 1949. It honors residents respected and admired throughout the community for their contributions to Newport Beach.

Last year’s winner was David Beek, whose family is one of the oldest in the city and who runs the Balboa Island Fuel Dock. His father, Seymour, who was also the Citizen of the Year in 2005, runs the Balboa Island Ferry.

“Laird Hayes’ longstanding commitment to volunteerism in our community makes him a perfect candidate for Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce 2023 Citizen of the Year,” said Rosansky in a statement Thursday. “He is one of the most positive, upbeat individuals I know, and he is always ready to roll up his sleeves to help.”

Hayes, 73, grew up in Santa Barbara. He said he moved to Newport Beach in the 1980s and held a number of positions at Orange Coast College. He was first hired as the assistant dean of student affairs in 1976. He was named the Coast Community College District’s director of community relations in 1985 and later returned to OCC, where he taught a variety of sports until his retirement in 2011, though he still teaches surfing and ocean safety classes to this day. From 1995 to 2017 he worked as a National Football League game official.

In retirement, he took on some civic roles. He was a member of the city’s Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission and the Water Quality and Coastal Tidelands Committee for a number of years. He volunteers with the Newport Beach police and fire departments and is an active member at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church.

“I’m really honored. I’m really humbled,” Hayes said of the Citizen of the Year recognition. “The whole deal, those trite things that people say — honest to God. I love the community. I love volunteering, but I do it because it’s fun and there’s meaning to it,” he said.

“I’ve got a great wife, Maggie, who’s always supported the stuff I’ve done, and our daughter, Katie, and our son, Andy — both kids live within a mile and a half of us. We have three grandkids. We feel very lucky to have our children so close.

“It was meaningful, totally unexpected and totally a surprise. I thought other people got recognized for that sort of thing and not me. It was totally out of blue, basically came out of right field. Those are fun surprises, right? The ones you don’t expect.”