Obituary of Robert W. Hardy

Bob Hardy passed away at The Bird House in Iowa City on May 7, 2022. He was a member of the Iowa City community for over 40 years, and he raised his children here. He was very affable and well-liked. Bob was born November 9, 1950, in Miami, Florida. He was raised by John and Violet Hardy, who he didn't learn until he was 50 years old, had adopted him at birth. Bob grew up in Miami as an only child until his foster brother, Steve Maxwell of Sanibel Island, Florida, came to live with them when Bob was a teenager. After high school, Bob attended community college and worked as a landscaper and for his parents' trucking business. In 1970, during the Viet Nam War, he joined the Air Force. There, he met his first wife, Mary Anderson, mother of his children, who was an officer in the Air Force Nurse Corps. Together, they were stationed in England for several years, where Bob served as a medic. When Mary and Bob returned to the U.S., they settled in Iowa City, where Mary had been accepted to graduate school, and Bob started college as an undergraduate. Eventually, Bob earned a Masters degree in Communications from the University of Iowa, and he taught journalism in the Communications Department. He also worked as a cameraman for KCRG, had a job as a production specialist at PATV, and for a brief time worked as a film processor for a medical lab in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Eventually, he became production coordinator and director of the City of Iowa City Cable Division. Bob met Kay Irelan at Horace Mann Elementary School when their children were in school there. They talked together at school functions for a few years and then become good friends when Kay started working at the City in 1997. They eventually married, and Bob and Kay finished raising their two youngest children together. Bob liked to joke, and sometimes, when people would ask him how he was, he'd reply, "Well, I'm still not rich and good-looking." When a doctor came into his hospital room and asked how he was feeling, he replied, "With my fingers." As a young man, Bob liked to draw, and throughout his life, he wrote poetry. He also loved taking photographs and owned quite a collection of cameras at one time. He and Kay enjoyed taking road trips around the country, and they traveled to the Southwest several times. After retirement, they traveled to Italy one year, followed by Greece another. They were members of dance clubs at Old Brick and at the Eagles Club in Iowa City. And Bob was an active member of Rotary for many years. Bob is survived by his wife Kay Irelan, his children, Christina Hachikian (Adam) of Chicago, Anderson Hardy of Des Moines, grandsons Owen and Carson Hachikian, Kay's children, Emily Irelan (Ben Prisament) and Claire Irelan (Robby Rickert) of Seattle, and Kay's granddaughter Zoey Rickert. A celebration of life for Bob will be held June 11, 2:00 to 5:00, at Vue Rooftop, located on the 12th floor of the Hilton Garden Inn on South Clinton Street in downtown Iowa City. ****** (Found scrawled in Bob's handwriting on a scrap of paper): We have all grown old Despite the memories, The thoughts, The almost-look-like-we-used-to look. I see with younger eyes. How can they not, too, Grow old like the rest of me? Accept the years.