1931-1996 Richard Clair Hardy

Richard Clair Hardy was born August 25, 1931 and graduated from Las Vegas High in May, 1949.  He had graduated from Primary and received his Individual Priesthood Awards each year and was a Senior Scout and a member of the Air Squadron 104 in Las Vegas.

Richard's father died when Richard was only 11 years old and this had a lasting affect on him.  Uncles stepped in to do the things his father would have done and the extended family in Las Vegas was a great help to his mother in raising her three boys alone.

After high school he attended BYU for one year where he was very active in Brigadiers, a social unit.  He decided to join the Navy because he did not have enough money to continue in college and maintain the type of social life he enjoyed.  After two years in the Korean War he was able to come back to BYU under the GI bill and he again attended BYU.

However, in 1955 Richard was called to the Spanish American Mission and served in Texas for two and a half years.  His mother had never given up on her dream to see Richard on a mission.  She was an inspiring influence in his life. The last year of his mission he was the Branch President in Alice, Texas.  This was when Richard knew he loved planning, organizing and managing and he did it well.   He also became proficient in Spanish and learned to love the Spanish people.  It was always his desire to serve another mission, perhaps in Mexico or South America.

                                                   

Returning to BYU he now managed Brigadiers and had that great social life he wanted.  He graduated from BYU in 1959 in Accounting and Finance and joined the firm of Central Federal in San Diego that summer.  He married Janet Anderson, a kindergarten teacher,  on October 23,  1959 after a six week courtship.  They lived in east San Diego until Janet's last year of teaching was completed.

Moving to the Pacific Beach Ward area Richard became Elders Quorum President and then a Counselor in the Bishopric.  After that most of his service was as the Ward or Stake Executive Secretary or a counselor in the Bishopric until he was called to the High Council.  He did not enjoy this role as much as he liked to be “hands on” in serving the Lord.

After leaving Central Federal as an appraiser he worked for Mansfield Mills, an investment counsel firm, where he soon became their manager and learned how to do marketing through letters.  He loved this aspect of business.  Richard was an extremely hard worker and it was during this time that Richard had his first heart attack and “died on the surgery table”.  Thanks to prayers and blessings he survived but was told he needed to change his lifestyle.  When this business was sold and he had a non-compete agreement he learned the second trust deed business with Jones Mortgage.  Richard enjoyed this business very much and was able to bring his expertise of letter writing and advertisement to the business and soon became a partner.  It worked very well until the recession in the early 80’s .  Richard had established Help-U-Sell Real Estate to help manage foreclosures and it became a very frantic, desperate time and they needed to branch out into brokering of first mortgages as well.  This is when Janet came into the business to help.  Richard eventually formed his own business, Choice Mortgage, which he managed as well as Help-U-Sell Real Estate.

Richard and Janet were blessed with their first child Johnny ten months after marrying.  Janet had been able to complete one more year of teaching kindergarten and then became a full time mother and they bought their first home just before the second child Linda arrived.  Within four years Maria and James were also in the family   When the youngest was three they moved to La Jolla where they lived until the youngest James had completed his mission.  In 1988 they moved to Rancho Bernardo which was to be their retirement home.  Richard had a five way bypass surgery during this move and his final heart attack in 1996 when  Richard was age 65.  He never was able to retire.

Richard and Martin Hardy Families.

Family was extremely important to Richard.  He always wanted to attend the Hardy and Earl Reunions in Las Vegas and spent many a weekend in Las Vegas catching up on what was happening with the Scott Hardys after their father died.  He loved the summer trips with all the family to Big Bear Lake and the winter trips to Park City skiing.  He loved taking the children to the amusement parks and all the things he had missed as a child.  He always wanted all of his brothers’ families to be part of his life and started the Hardy Reunions at Torrey Pines Park.  He loved planning them and urging everyone to come.  His brother Martin fully supported him in his efforts.  He honored his parents, his brothers as well as the wives of he and his brothers with programs at these reunions.  He wanted all the grandchildren to know about their family.  He was tireless in these efforts.

You would not find Richard on the golf course or lounging around the house.  His only recreation was a few ski runs at Christmas with his grandchildren.  The rest of the time he was “at work” usually from 7 to 9 and sometimes longer.  His clients loved it because he would “drop-in” on the way home from work and apprise them of what was happening in the trust deed business and perhaps sell them a new investment.  He was always one on one with his clients and very close to them.  This was his  greatest expertise and would later be his downfall.  In the late 80’s he invited some friends to come in and speak to his clients about investments in the Bakersfield and Tulare area.  Many of his clients purchased these investments.  When the investment turned sour they urged Richard to take over and because he wanted to serve them, he took the project on.  It was too far away and a disaster from the beginning and although Richard ended up in saving most of his clients, his own financial resources became depleted and his business at home suffered.  It dragged on until after he passed away.  But as one of the escrow officers said, “If he had just had a little more time, it would have all been completed.”  It was an unfortunate ending to an otherwise exceptionally excellent business career.



In fact, Richard was really an extraordinary man because as busy as he was he was never too busy to give time to those in need. Over the years there was a trail of relatives and others less fortunate that Richard had either taken into his home or gone to them and helped with jobs, financing on cars, advise, or whatever was needed.  Janet once counted 29 people who had lived with them for over 3 months or more in a ten year period.  And this doesn’t include the countless others he has helped.  His friends and family knew to “just ask Richard”.  Janet often said no matter what time of day or night, no matter how tired Richard was, if Janet needed anything Richard always said, “No problem, I can take care of it.”  He was always ready to give of himself.  Expressions of love and appreciation after his death were “gentle, honest, kind, hard worker, always going beyond the call of duty”.  One man said he was a prince in this world and too good for it, the world could not be what he wanted it to be.

In 2011 Richard had a posterity of four children, 15 grandchildren, three son-in-laws, and four great-grandchildren.  His wife Janet lives in Lake Almanor, CA and his son John passed away in 2004 of a heart attack.