Obituary
Julian Thomas Hardy, 94, passed away Saturday, January 29, 2023. He was born in Woodbury, Georgia on December 22 1928 to George Warner and Elizabeth Hardy. He graduated from Meriwether County High School in 1945. In 1951, Tom met and married Betty Nelson, while serving in the US Coast Guard. Betty and Tom were married for over 61 years. While serving at several stations in Florida, Betty and Tom had two children; a son Wayne Thomas and a daughter Pamela Joyce. In 1962 the family moved to Staten Island, NYC after Tom was assigned to the ship USCG Spencer.
The following article appeared in a 1967 issue of AMVER, which is the bulletin of the United States Coast Guard. “The AMVER system’s top programmer, Senior Chief Radarman Julian T. Hardy, will retire July 1st, after better than 20 years of service in the U.S. Guard – the last three in AMVER.” “Hardy pulled stints aboard such cutters at the Androscoggin, once while she was operating out of Boston, and later out of Miami; the Iroquis, out of Honolulu; and the Spencer out of New York. He had also spent a year on isolated duty at the Coast Guard’s Loran transmitting station in Battle Harbour, Labrador, and had served as a recruiter in Atlanta, Tampa and Miami.”
The Family moved to Orlando in 1967 upon Tom’s service retirement and acceptance of a Data Processing position at Tupperware. Tom had a successful civilian career in data processing for almost 20 years before his 2nd official retirement.
After two careers sitting at a desk, Tom had different ideas for retirement. And anyone who knew Tom over the last 40 years knew his true passion was Senior Softball! His Team the ‘Tomcats’, was the top Team for over 20 years in Orlando and won many local, state, and national Championships! He was also recognized as an All-American Senior Softball player in 1989.
At every phase of his life Tom was guided by his faith in his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, a strong work ethic and love of family.
Tom is survived by his daughter-in-law [Naida], Two grandchildren [Elizabeth, Matthew], and four great-grandchildren [Leah, Emelia, Nolan, Maddox].
Graveside on Tuesday, February 21, 2023 at Florida National Cemetery at 11:30am.
Leave a reply