Hardy to receive award for generosity
Joe Hardy cites the adage, “You don’t live a successful life unless you die broke,” as one of his inspirations. The 82-year-old Farmington resident, founder of 84 Lumber Co. in Washington County and owner since 1987 of Nemacolin Woodlands Resort & Spa in Fayette County, has donated nearly $6 million to community service and civic groups in Fayette County, according to 84 Lumber attorney Cheri Bomar, who helps monitor the company’s, and Hardy’s, charitable contributions.
Also, Hardy donates his entire salary as a county commissioner to the Fayette County Community Action Agency Food Bank in Uniontown.
In part because of his generosity, Hardy will receive the 2005 Communities of Salt and Light Award for philanthropy from Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Greensburg at the organization’s seventh annual Communities of Salt and Light Awards dinner April 14 at Stratigos Banquet Centre in North Huntingdon, Westmoreland County.
The social hour begins at 6 p.m., and dinner is at 6:45. Proceeds go to Catholic Charities to provide financial assistance for emergency services to those in need in the four counties of the diocese (Armstrong, Fayette, Indiana and Westmoreland).
For more information about tickets, sponsorships or advertising, call Judy Modecki, diocesan director of coordinated services/development for Catholic Charities, at 724-837-1840.
The Rev. J. Edward McCullough, pastor of St. Aloysius Parish in Dunbar, who nominated Hardy, said Hardy “definitely believes in being a steward on this earth.”
Hardy helped St. Aloysius Parish complete its shrine to St. Padre Pio, the 20th-century Italian priest who bore the stigmata and was canonized in 2002.
“He helped us because the shrine is something that is good for people, that would elevate people’s minds and their hope,” McCullough said.
Born Jan. 7, 1923, in Pittsburgh, Hardy is a graduate of Mount Lebanon High School and the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II in Central America and worked at the family business, Hardy and Hayes Jewelers in Pittsburgh, before striking out on his own.
His first effort was Green Hills Lumber in 1952. Four years later, with two younger brothers, he founded 84 Lumber Co. The company had more than $3 billion in sales in 2004. In 1987, he purchased Nemacolin Woodlands at a bankruptcy sale.
Hardy’s George Handyside Foundation provides about $100,000 annually in college scholarships to the children of his employees, the Joe Hardy Foundation makes charitable donations, and the newly established Fayette Progress Council will help non-profit groups in Fayette County, Bomar said.
She said most of the $6 million Hardy has donated has been in the past two years, and includes more than $2 million in property purchases to help develop downtown Uniontown.