Robert Calloway Hardy

Robert "Bob" Calloway Hardy Sr. was called home on March 25, 2023, to meet his Saviour. He passed peacefully in his bedroom under the care of his Loving Wife after suffering a massive stroke three weeks prior.

Bob Hardy is survived by his loving wife, Kathy Hardy, Daughters: Holly Ellison and Cindy Speer and husband Mike Speer. Sons: Champ Hardy Jr., Ron Hardy, Craig Hardy and Stepdaughters: Laura Padgett, Bryanna Escobar and husband Gil, and Sarah Padgett, fifteen grandchildren, eleven great grandchildren and many friends. He was one of the original members of Christ the Good Shepherd starting with what we used to call St. Benfer before our current church was built. He has served as lector, as a youth minister for many years as well as a Fourth Degree Knight in the Knights of Columbus.

He graduated from St. Thomas high school in Houston, Texas in 1948. Then in his youthful years, he was involved in many part time jobs. He delivered Western Union telegrams during WW II notifying families about the fate of family members; He delivered Saturday Evening Post magazines, Liberty Magazine, Houston Post and Houston Press Newspapers. He sold cookware. He spent over two years in an apprenticeship for a cotton company learning to be a cotton classer, The Korean War intervened.

After serving four years in the U.S. Air Force in Korea as a flight engineer, he was discharged as a Staff Sergeant. He joined the Houston Police Department and simultaneously enrolled at the University of Houston in Industrial Engineering, in 1955. In 1965, he graduated. He worked three years as an engineer and rose to a job as plant manager, however, he found himself unhappy with that line of work. His best friend's wife introduced him to an automobile dealer who needed a car leasing manager, he interviewed and was hired. After several years in this line of work and establishing a reputation, he was offered several lucrative jobs as a manager. He ultimately started his own company, Gibraltar Leasing, with the blessing of First City National Bank.

Due to recession in the nineties, fearing he might lose his company, he started law school and graduated in two and a half years at the age of 59. He began specializing in helping disabled people obtain Social Security Benefits. He retired at 90, having helped over 6000 people.

In Bob's words, he was looking forward to meeting his overworked Guardian Angel who has protected him through a near plane crash, a 105 mph police car crash, a near gunshot to the head, a brain bleed from a fall on ice and a car he totaled after falling asleep while driving on the highway, plus countless other near misses. He will be dearly missed, until we meet again.

A celebration of Life will be held Thursday April 20, 2023 @ 10:30am at Saint Mary Catholic Church located at 8227 Cr205, Plantersville, Texas 77363 and later laid to rest in Veterans Memorial Cemetery date and time tbd.