J. Michael Hayden was born in Akron, Ohio. He studied history at John Carroll University, earning both a B.A. (1957) and MA. (1958). As a Fulbright Fellow, he spent 1960-61 at the University of Paris (Sorbonne). Hayden returned to the United States and entered the graduate program at Chicago's Loyola University and was granted a PhD. in history in 1963. Hayden spent the next six years at the University of Detroit, first as a lecturer then as an Assistant Professor. He came to the University of Saskatchewan in 1966 as an Assistant Professor and was subsequently promoted to full Professor in 1974. He served as the Head of the History Department from 1984-1988. Hayden retired from the History Department in 2001 and was named Professor Emeritus.