Harold A. Hayes III; Budget Analyst For Pentagon, Lifelong 'Beach Bum'

Harold Arthur Hayes III, 57, a Leesburg resident who died at his home Sept. 3 of pancreatic cancer, was a senior budget analyst for the Defense Department, but friends and family say that it was his life outside the office that defined the man.

Mr. Hayes -- known as Skipp -- was born at the Navy hospital in Key West, Fla. When he arrived home, he was christened "the skipper" of the house; the shortened version stuck. A "beach bum" his whole life, he idolized Jimmy Buffett.

He grew up in Alexandria, graduated from Mount Vernon High School in 1967 and received a bachelor's degree in business administration from the College of William & Mary in 1971.

Mr. Hayes worked as a Pentagon budget analyst from 1972 to 1979 and then joined the staff of U.S. Sen. Thomas Eagleton (D-Mo.), where he was a senior legislative aide from 1980 to 1984. His area of expertise was defense-related legislation. From 1984 to 1986, he worked as a defense consultant for Advanced Management Systems.

From 1986 until his death, he was the lead budget analyst for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense in the Comptroller Investment Directorate, where he oversaw funding for the development and procurement of combat and logistics vehicles. At times during his Pentagon tenure, he was responsible for reserves' funding, efforts to counter improvised explosive devices and other Army matters.

An avid runner, he hit the streets of Leesburg almost daily with friends in a group known as the DAC, the Downtown Athletic Club. He was a member of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Purcellville, where he served on the finance committee.

The Rev. John Ohmer, an Episcopal priest in Leesburg, described him as a "connector," borrowing the writer Malcolm Gladwell's term for people who know lots of people and who have a gift for bringing them together. Mr. Hayes was considered a superb storyteller and also was a dog lover and an Eagle Scout.

Befitting his Key West heritage, he loved nothing better than to lie in the sun on the beach. Longtime friend Bobbie Wilkinson recalled that when he was first hospitalized in summer 2005, he would roll his IV cart out to the hospital's roof terrace, open up his hospital gown and sunbathe.

"I won his heart forever," Wilkinson said, "because I was the one who found the hidden electrical outlet that allowed him to plug his IV machinery in and stay out on the roof until his doctors and nurses went looking for him."

Knowing Mr Hayes's enthusiastic embrace of the "parrothead" lifestyle, friends conspired to send him and his wife to a Buffett concert at Nissan Pavilion in March. It was a 57th birthday gift. Resplendent in a Hawaiian shirt, straw hat, khakis and flip-flops, he spent most of the concert dancing in the aisles. He was buried in his Buffett regalia.

A son, Danny W. Hayes, died in 1978.

Survivors include his wife of 33 years, Candace Marie Kain Hayes of Leesburg; three children, Shannon K. Hayes of Rehoboth Beach, Del., and Molly K. Hayes and Courtney K. Hayes, both of Leesburg; his parents, Harold A. Hayes Jr. and Mary Anita Hayes of Alexandria; and three sisters, Heidi Bopp and Jill Nofziger, both of Alexandria, and Laurie Gerrard of San Diego.