Mashantucket — It’s a name synonymous with grand vision and good fortune.

Maybe hubris, too, though family members could be expected to dispute that.

The name’s Hayward, as in Richard “Skip” Hayward, the submarine-pipefitter-turned-tribal-leader who rescued the Mashantucket Pequots from oblivion, their Foxwoods Resort Casino an enduring fortress that has weathered economic headwinds and relentless competition.

Hayward stepped away from tribal affairs more than a decade ago — and disappeared from public view.

It seemed other Haywards — he’s the oldest of nine siblings — also withdrew.

Not so, Robert Hayward, Skip’s younger brother, said Thursday in an interview.

Named the Mashantuckets’ state government affairs manager on Wednesday, Robert Hayward, 52, said neither he nor his brother nor their six sisters ever turned their backs on the tribe.

Not when Skip was deposed as chairman in 1998 and not when he failed in his last attempt to win back the chairmanship in 2002.

When Skip completed his last tribal council term in 2005, he retreated, and so did Robert, a former Tribal Gaming Commission chairman who was then Skip's executive assistant.

Their sister Theresa Bell, the first executive director of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, which opened in 1998, resigned in 2006.

The Hayward departures were not entirely amicable, according to published reports at the time.

“But it’s not like it was a Hatfields-and-McCoys thing,” Robert Hayward said. “The tribe was growing, evolving. Things were changing; that’s part of democracy.”

By the mid-2000s, the tribe that Skip began pulling back together in the 1970s had grown to 800 members. Foxwoods, which opened in 1992, had become one of the most profitable casinos in the world.

Robert helped build the bingo hall that preceded Foxwoods.

“I’m probably one of the few who’s ever sat with Skip,” Robert Hayward said. “I remember saying to him, ‘Skip, do you think you’ll ever go back?’”

In a way, he’s never left.

Skip, 68, and his wife, Carol, have been living on the reservation, in the same Elizabeth George Drive home Skip has long maintained, Robert said, having sold a Noank property.

Skip never had children.

“The tribe was his children. He’d work for the tribe from sunup to sundown,” Robert said. “He wanted to do more. It’s like if your family’s sick, you want them to have the best doctor, right? That’s the way he was.”

Robert said his brother, who hasn’t given an interview in years, has continued to monitor tribal affairs.

“The light’s on in his office at night,” he said. “He’s well read. With the Internet and stuff, he’d have to know what’s going on.”

When the tribe encountered the financial crisis that caused it to default on its long-term debt in 2009, some pointed a finger at Skip, though the decision to invest in a second hotel tower (now The Fox Tower) came after his departure.

“He had nothing to do with that,” Robert said.

Asked if his own return to tribal government might signal an eventual re-emergence on Skip’s part, Robert wouldn’t rule it out.

“I’d love to see him get involved with the elders council,” he said, referring to the tribe’s 55-and-older membership.

All told, the tribe now numbers 1,021 members, a fair share of Haywards among them, including Skip’s sisters, all of whom go by their married names.

Bell, the former museum director, and Susan Whipple are tribal elders, a status Patricia Byron is approaching.

Cynthia Torraca serves the tribal government as director of human resources.

Belinda McKeon is a member of the Tribal Gaming Commission, and with her husband, Gary, runs Joshua’s Limousine Service, a family-owned business.

Sandra Daggett owns Sandy’s Lighthouse, a restaurant on Misquamicut Beach in Westerly.

A third Hayward brother, Rodney, died in a 1984 motorcycle crash.

“This is a very strong, unified family that’s contributed so much,” Lori Potter, a tribal member who serves as the Mashantuckets’ director of communications, said of the Haywards. “When Skip left (the tribal council), it was heartbreaking for them. This was their brother, who they adored. But they never abandoned the tribe.”

b.hallenbeck@theday.com