Richard Davis Hardin was a man who believed in humanity and the innate goodness of mankind. In this sense he was both an irrepressible optimist, and adorably naïve. When Samuel Clemens penned Mark Twain’s adventures and misadventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn - he wrote of a certain time and place in America. Twain’s time might as well have been Dick Hardin’s childhood, and Twain’s place could have been Stephenville Texas.
Richard “Dick” Hardin was born May 19, 1924, in Stephenville, Erath County, Texas, the son of Stella Davis and Carl Clara Hardin Sr., both native Texans. In 1933, the Hardin family moved to Austin, where his father served in the Texas House from 1923 to 1925 and in the Texas Senate from 1925 to 1933.
Hardin grew up in his mother’s home on Rio Grande Street, which became known as Mrs. Hardin’s rooming house, later to become the iconic Hardin House. He attended Austin public schools and won honors on the debate team. A lifelong member of Boy Scouts, Troop 20, the troop held reunions for more than 40 years.
In Austin he attended University Junior High and Austin High School, and was a member of the Woodrow Wilson Club and Debate Squad, receiving district and regional awards in his first interscholastic declamation competition in 1941. He graduated in Spring 1941. He attended University of Texas at Austin from 1941 to 1942 and 1946 to 1952. In the interim, he served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II.
Hardin was talented in both fine art and dramatic arts. At the University of Texas at Austin, he was cast a leading man in several dramatic productions. His bride-to-be Coleen Grant, a beauty queen from Longview Texas, likewise was a leading lady in several dramatic performances at the University, though they were cast together only once, in the production of the play “Heaven Can Wait.”
He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in early 1952 and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to New Zealand, where he studied oceanographic art and archeology at Victoria College, University of New Zealand, Auckland, from April through December 1952.
Hardin enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on December 9, 1942, and served as Sergeant, 5th Amphibious Corps, in the Pacific Theatre. He later attended Officers Candidate School at Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey from 1944 to 1945.
Dick Hardin and Coleen Grant were married January 26th, 1945 at Christ Church in New York City, after he returned from serving in the Pacific Theatre during World War II and was attending the Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Princeton University. Awarded American Campaign, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign, and World War II medals, he received an honorable discharge on November 13, 1945.
Dick’s professional career began while he was attending UT following World War II. From about 1947 to 1949, Dick and Coleen owned a design and catering business on Lavaca St. in Austin. From 1953 to about 1956 he worked as a professor or art at San Angelo College, now Angelo State University, in San Angelo, Texas.
During the early 1950s fine art was a central part of Hardin’s life. His remarkable talent and creativity flourished. He sculpted, sketched in pen and ink, illustrated books, and painted oil on board. He created a legacy of Modernist masterworks which the family still owns and cherishes. His paintings have been exhibited at the Grace Museum, and included in Katie Robinson Edwards definitive book, Midcentury Modern Art in Texas.
During the summer of 1954, Dick was an advertising executive at General Electric in Schenectady, New York. He worked as publication manager for the Steck Company in Austin from about 1956 to 1957. While still in Austin he served as executive director and professional fundraiser for the Gonzales Warm Springs Foundation in Texas from about 1959 to 1962. He was co-publisher of Austin’s Go Magazine, which received a Heritage Society award in 1964 for support of historical preservation.
After his daughter Lise was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis, Hardin became active organizing, educating, and fund raising in an effort to find a treatment and cure. He was active in the Austin Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and toured towns in Texas to raise awareness of the disease. In the 1980s, he was a member of the board of directors of the Texas Institute for Rehabilitation and Research, Texas Medical Center, Houston, Texas, where daughter Lise had been a patient in the 1960s.
Dick and Coleen were founding members of the GBATTS (Getting Better All The Time Singers), which was formed in 1987 and disbanded in 2013.
A visitation will be 12:00 to 2:00 pm on Wednesday, March 11, 2020 at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home, 3125 N Lamar Blvd, Austin, Texas 78705.
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