Tim Hardy, a long time sangha member and teacher in the Columbia, SC Dharmadhatu, passed away on January 23 in Asheville, North Carolina. He was in hospice care with Parkinson's disease. Tim passed in the loving company of his wife, Laurin Hardy, his daughter, Anna Hardy, and son, Alex Hardy, as well as Carl Eisenstadt, a long time vajra brother. Tim attended the Vajradhatu Seminary 1985 and supported many practitioners in South Carolina before moving to Indiana in 2002 to work for Toyota. In Indiana, Tim continued practicing and attending Shambhala programs, before retiring in Asheville. He is fondly remembered for his compassion and cheerful energetic presence.
Tributes
I had the wonderful fortune of knowing Tim since 1972 where we met as university students volunteering on the McGovern campaign in Columbia, SC. Perhaps it was McGovern’s devastating defeat and crying together that night in the pouring rain that veered both of us toward spiritual exploration. Tim’s determined curiosity to understand humanity led him to a degree in Comparative Religion and a stint of living in an ashram. There he ended up leading the group through an analysis of Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, causing the group to dismantle and Tim became a student of Buddhism.
Tim became friends with my whole family, working for my father for a short stint, becoming my mother’s ideal scrabble adversary, and close friends with my three sisters, and finally marrying a dear cousin of mine. Always helpful, humorous and reflective, I am so grateful for such a truly fine friend and vajra brother.
I knew Tim from my time in Columbia, South Carolina in the late 70’s. Tim was a very cheerful and lovable person, unpretentious…just a great guy. When I knew him, he looked like Tom Selleck with his bushy mustache, and he had the same effect on the ladies. A very fine man indeed.
Tim and I first met in South Carolina in the late 70’s. He was a close friend of my wife Jeani and her whole family. In fact, he ended up marrying a cousin of Jeani’s whom he met at our wedding! We also got into the dharma around the same time and along with that familial connection, we enjoyed a number of years of various and sundry incarnations of the Columbia, SC Dharmadhatu. Tim was a sharp, cheerful and energetic guy, always fun to hang around with but also able to manifest precision and discipline organizing center programs and events. He had the rare ability to be fun and reliable! Having moved to Indiana, not exactly a hotbed of dharmic activity, I can only imagine how difficult it was for him to maintain connection, but he did. Jeani and I had planned a trip to SC and I’m so grateful that we were able to go to Asheville and visit him just before he died. It was difficult for him to speak and his consciousness was sometimes with us and other times somewhere else, but a shared sacred moment altogether. Farewell old friend and dharma brother. Maybe catch you on the next one.
