NORTH BERWICK, Maine —
Wadsworth Howland Hardy, age 92, passed away peacefully Saturday, April 25 after a long period of failing health. He was under the loving care of the nurses and staff of the Edgewood Centre in Portsmouth, N.H.
Born April 5, 1923 in North Berwick, Maine, he was the son of Charles W. and Laura (Reid) Hardy. Graduating from North Berwick High in 1941, he studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Maine where he was a brother in the Phi Eta Kappa fraternity. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1944 and married his high school sweetheart, Vesta Jackson that same year.
He worked at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard from 1951 until his retirement in 1980, including a Temporary Duty Transfer to Guam, M.I. from 1966 to 1969. The couple resided in Kittery, Maine from 1952 to 1971, lived in Cape Neddick, Maine, and moved to Portsmouth, N.H. before retiring to Wildwood, Florida in 1990. They returned to Portsmouth in 2005. “Wad and Vesta” enjoyed camping, square dancing, traveling and especially family get-togethers at Square Pond, in Shapleigh, Maine.
At the time of his death, he was the oldest living Past Master of the Yorkshire Masonic Lodge #179 AF & AM of North Berwick, Maine.
He was pre-deceased by Vesta Audrey (Jackson) Hardy, his wife of over 66 years. She was born August 28, 1923 in North Berwick, Maine and passed away May 31, 2011.
The couple is survived by four sons, Lee & (Roxie), Terry & (Joyce), Tim & (Valerie), Ted & (Rebecca) and a daughter, Bonnie Hardy; twelve grandchildren and twenty-one great-grandchildren.
Following a private service for family and close friends at Johnson’s Funeral Home in North Berwick, he will be interred with Vesta at the Southern Maine Veteran’s Cemetery in Springvale, Maine. Condolences may be made at www.JohnsonFuneralHomeME.com