Sunday, January 22nd, 2009 – Coeur d’Alene Press

 

Robert Perry Hardison passed away on January 31st, 2009.  He was born to Dean and Alice Hardison on Aug. 8, 1933, in Fullerton, Calif. The family moved to Butte, Mont. when Bob was three. After his two sisters were born, the family moved to Texas and Louisiana, returning to Butte in 1940. When the family moved to an old farm in Flume Gulch, Bob attended a one room school house and Butte High School for two years.

 

In 1949, the family moved to Casper, WY, where he graduated from Natrona County High School and Casper College. At age 19, Bob joined the Army where he served as a paratrooper and cartographer. He moved to Southern California with his first wife Laura, working for several of the major aircraft manufacturers including Douglas and Lockheed Martin. They adopted a son Brett while living in Thousand Oaks. While working for the aircraft companies he also attended college. Bob and his second wife, Phyllis had two children, Susan Reeves (Manson) and Casey Williams Hardison and a stepson, Michael Markum Hardison.

 

Bob was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous for nearly 40 years. His work with them consumed much of his time and he considered them part of his family. Members can still read his Web pages at www.barefootsworld.net.

 

He retired to Post Falls from Southern California in 1998, where he worked for numerous companies that recognized his instant understanding of the complexities and uses of mechanical and electrical engineering. Bob wrote project prospectus for many of the companies he worked for.

 

Self-educated, he studied guitar, banjo playing, the growing of orchids and photography. Like his father he had a warm, accepting personality and a natural speaking ability. He was a good storyteller.

 

After retirement he used his computer knowledge and writing skills to do historical research, write family stories and to document his trips.

 

He became quite the adventurer cross country and around Central America on his Gold wing motorcycle. He and his son Casey shared a canoe trip down the Mississippi and sailing adventures on his trimaran boat in the Caribbean and up across the North Sea to the east coast of Europe then into the Mediterranean.

 

His last trip was across the U.S. in his 1914 Model T Ford Delivery Wagon.

 

He is survived by his children (named above), his mother Alice Hardison; a sister Tinka Elizabeth Ponder (Sam); and younger brother, Michael A. Hardison (Judy). He was preceded in death by his sister Nancy Cozette Olsen; and survived by her three children, Mary Deane Schumacher, Albert "Tim" Olsen and Ralph "Tony" Olsen who were later adopted by Bob's parents, Dean and Alice Hardison. He is also survived by numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.