Bill Hardy was born to Paula Elizabeth Tune and William Fletcher Hardy, Sr. on August 9, 1937 in Nashville Tennessee. He graduated from Tennessee Polytechnic Institute with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at age 22 and simultaneously received his commission as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army. That same year, he met Billie Barbara Monroe on a blind date, fell in love, and married her a year later. He served in numerous assignments over the next 17 years including two combat tours in Vietnam, commander of a Nike Hercules nuclear missile battery in New York, Army staff officer at NORAD, and assistant professor of Military Science at Southern Arkansas University.
His military awards include the Meritorious Service Medal, Bronze Star with two Oak Leaf Clusters, Army Commendation Medal, Air Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal with 60 device, Republic of Vietnam Staff Service Medal, Two Overseas Service Bars, Air Crewman Badge, and Parachutist Badge.
He moved his family to Fort Worth, Texas during the summer of 1977 to attend Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. There, he received his Master's of Religious Education in 1978 and his Doctorate of Education in December of 1986. During this same period, he continued to serve his country in the US Army Reserve where he received his promotion to Lieutenant Colonel and eventually retired from the service in 1988.
Over the next twelve years, he and Bebe ran a thriving Learning Center business, where they taught remedial math and reading to struggling students. In 2001, he decided to teach full time for the Fort Worth ISD as a math teacher at Northside High School and finally retired from teaching in June 2011.
He invested his entire life serving the Lord, his family, and his nation and he loved his wife, his children, his parents, and his grandchildren like no other man we have known. He seemed to never meet a stranger and was a very wise counselor. Welcome home thou good and faithful servant!
