John Ceah Hardwick Sr.

On January 25, 1937, John Ceah Hardwick was born to Herbert Nathaniel Hardwick and Johnnie Mae Choates Hardwick in Savannah, Georgia, where his father was a high school teacher and founded a construction company and his mother was a gifted homemaker and managed the accounts for the construction company. John was the youngest of four siblings (Mercedes Winona; Herbert Nathaniel, II; and Dolores Ann) and attended Savannah public schools. He completed the Sacramental Rite of Confirmation at St. Matthews Episcopal Church in Savannah. He was only ten years old when his mother became ill and passed away. Thereafter, he moved to Newport News, Virginia to live with his sister Mercedes and her husband Augustus Palmer. John graduated from Huntington High School and, following in the footsteps of his father and great aunt, went to Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), where he met the love of his life and future wife, Elsie M. Moseley.

After the Korean Armistice Agreement formalized an unsteady cessation of the Korean War, John was drafted into the US Army and selected for study at the US Army Defense Language Institute at the Presidio of Monterey, California. He finished at the top of his class, emerging fluent in Korean. He served for one-and-a-half years in an Army intelligence unit at the Korean Demilitarized Zone on classified missions that furthered the United States/South Korea Mutual Defense Treaty.

Following his return from Korea, John and Elsie resumed their courtship and married in Richmond, Virginia on July 21, 1962. The newlyweds moved to Washington, D.C. and were soon blessed with a daughter, Karen Michele, and a son, John Jr. In December 1968, the young family moved to Columbia, Maryland, a new town founded by James Rouse with a stated mission to unify residents across racial, religious and class differences and to innovate in education, recreation, religion, and health care. John’s foresight in steering the family to Columbia benefited them greatly, as they thrived amid Columbia's open classrooms, interfaith centers, youth sports, and then-novel health maintenance organization (HMO).

John and Elsie developed early professional interests and aptitude in the nascent fields of information technology (IT) and enterprise information management systems in the 1970’s. As the digital revolution unfolded through the 1980’s and 90’s, John ascended to positions of increasing management and executive responsibility in the private and public sectors, culminating in his serving as Chief of Information Systems for the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he applied his forward-thinking intellect to solving the challenges of enterprise security and data management. Notable career highlights included being a participant and invited panelist at the Aspen Institute and working with Bill Gates and Michael Dell on mission planning, IT system architecture, and IT resource management for the benefit of the BOP. John was a principal architect of the BOP’s state-of-the-art, secure digital fiber infrastructure that linked all correctional institutions, offices and staff together and the information system that supported the day-to-day operations of the federal corrections system. In recognition, John received the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in Management for “management and technical skills directly responsible for substantially improving the Bureau’s information systems.” He retired in 2005 as a member of the Senior Executive Service.

John was a devoted husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, and friend. He was an active partner with Elsie in the raising of their children Karen and John Jr., both law school graduates, and an enthusiastic and full supporter of Elsie’s career as a member of the Principal Staff at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. John spent countless weekends as a “soccer parent” supporting John Jr; was an avid and prodigious reader of history, biographies, and non-fiction; and was a renowned BBQ grill master. Drawn to the Low Country of his youth, John started a four-decades-long tradition of summer vacations on Hilton Head Island, SC, where he became affectionately known as the “Mayor of Hilton Head.” He enjoyed many close friendships and was thrilled at the blending of family and friends into a vibrant extended family that enjoyed holidays and vacations together and supported each other through life’s successes and challenges.

John and Elsie enjoyed 58 years of marriage and laughter, delighting in being parents, grandparents, and uncle and aunt. After an extended illness, John passed peacefully, surrounded by family on April 17, 2021.

John is survived by his wife Elsie, daughter Karen (Adrian Gardner), son John Jr. (Maureen), granddaughter Emerson Lily, sister Dolores Martin (the late Dr. Harold B. Martin), and many nieces, nephews, cousins and dear friends. He was predeceased by his sister Mercedes Palmer (Augustus L. Palmer Sr.), brother Herbert Hardwick, II (Drusilla) and nephew Augustus L. Palmer, Jr.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in memory of John C. Hardwick, Sr. to:

COPD Foundation

3300 Ponce De Leon Blvd

Miami, FL 33134

Or to make a donation online, go to www.copdfoundation.org/take-action/donate/donate-now