Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, August 16, 1994                   TAG: 9408160080
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MINISTER, TECH STAFFER, FLOWER EXPERT, FRIEND

The Rev. Joseph E. Hardy, who died Saturday at age 89, was a part-time minister and Virginia Tech's retired director of student housing.

But he also was a wildflower buff, much in demand as a speaker by local garden clubs, who often toted his camera along on his walks in the woods.

"He could take you up on the hills and show you all kinds of things," said retired Tech Professor Walter W. Gross, a fellow wildflower enthusiast.

Some of Hardy's old friends around Blacksburg still have the framed photographs he offered as gifts, but some of his pictures give an even larger gift - the gift of hope.

Back when the architects sat down to design the Cancer Center of Southwest Virginia in Roanoke, they made a decision: "The design would emphasize life," said spokeswoman Sally Ramey.

Through Tech, the center obtained several of Hardy's wildflower photographs blown up into distinctive oil painting-murals throughout the center.

Hardy's photos hang in the Montgomery Regional Hospital, too.

"He'd take people on walking tours in the woods," said an old colleague, the Rev. Al Payne. "He was a kindly guy, but he had a good sense of humor. I would call him an evangelist of the real term, but he wasn't judgmental, he wasn't angry.

"He just talked about the good news."

Hardy was also a mentor to the Rev. Holly Phillips.

"He ordained me," said Phillips, who will officiate at Hardy's services Wednesday at 10 a.m. in Blacksburg Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Hardy had been part of the Blacksburg community for years, through his ties to Tech, his wildflower expertise and his ministry. He served at Snowville Christian Church, Centennial Christian Church in McCoy, and at Radford Christian Church, according to the Rev. Johnny Loughridge.

"He could get a sermon out of most anything - a flower, or a tree," said Oakley Lilley, a parishioner when Hardy preached at Centennial from 1948 to 1961.

"Just a wonderful human being," said former Tech President William Lavery. "Very understanding, very cordial, very concerned about people."