T. Hardie Park, 1927-2019

Professor Emeritus of Economics and Business T. Hardie Park died June 18, 2019, in Iowa City. He was 91.

Professor Park served on Cornell’s faculty from 1963 to 1991. Among the courses he taught were Microeconomics (which included one of his areas of specialization, industrial organization), Macroeconomics, Economics of Developing Countries, and Managerial Economics. In the late ’60s he began to concentrate professionally on the development problems of tropical Africa, emphasizing food production, especially in Tanzania and Nigeria; he then became a charter member of the college’s Non-Western Studies Committee. In the early ’70s he became a pioneer on campus for incorporating computers into his teaching.

At his retirement celebration his colleague Don Cell, Professor of Economics, noted that he was thrust into leadership roles early in his tenure and continued to serve on all but one of the major committees plus a presidential search committee that resulted in the selection of President Philip Secor.

The full obituary from the family follows. A memorial service will be held on campus at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, June 29, in Allee Chapel, followed by a reception in the Berry Lobby in front of Kimmel Theatre.

Thomas Hardie Park

Thomas Hardie Park, 91, Iowa City, died on June 18, 2019.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, June 29, 2019, at 1:30 p.m. at Allee Chapel, Cornell College, in Mount Vernon. Following the service, refreshments and fellowship will be provided in Berry Lobby of the Kimmel Theater, Youngker Building on the Cornell College Campus. A private burial will be held at the Mount Vernon Memorial Cemetery.

Hardie is preceded in death by his wife, Linde Ludwig Park; and survived by his son, Albert Hardie Park (Holly); daughter, Helen Park Jameson (David); and two grandsons, Gabriel Thomas and Kaleb Louis Park. Hardie was also preceded in death by his parents, Mary Lee Park and George Hillary Park, and brother, Ulna Foster Park.

Hardie was born in Charleston, South Carolina, but grew up in Columbia, Tennessee, south of Nashville  His love for fishing began in Tennessee, and was with him throughout his life and passed on to his kids and grandkids as well. Prior to his studies at Vanderbilt University, Hardie served briefly in the U.S. Navy where he developed a life-long interest in electronics. He also received a Rotary scholarship to study at Glasgow University (Scotland, 1954-55). On his way to Scotland and while crossing the ocean on the Queen Elizabeth, he met Linde Ludwig. Linde was born and raised in Regensburg, Germany, and at that time was participating in a nursing exchange program in the U.S. Linde was on the ship headed back to Germany to visit her parents for the holidays. After their romantic rendezvous, Linde and Hardie were married in Columbia, Tennessee, on Sept. 15, 1956. Two years later, Albert, their first child, was born while they were still living in Nashville. Hardie served as an assistant professor of economics at North Carolina State University from 1958 to 1963, where their daughter, Helen (Bee), was born.

Hardie and Linde and their children moved to Mount Vernon, Iowa, in 1963 when Hardie accepted a tenure-track position as an associate professor in the Department of Economics and Business at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. Hardie served on the faculty at Cornell College between 1963 and 1991, received tenure, and was promoted to full professor. His career included a year-long sabbatical where Hardie researched West African economics at Stanford University and the whole family enjoyed a year living in Palo Alto, California. Hardie and Linde moved to Oaknoll Retirement Residence in Iowa City, Iowa, in 2002. Hardie’s other interests included landscaping, their cabin in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, antique world maps, and especially his grandsons, Gabe and Kaleb.

A memorial fund has been established for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Hardie’s name at Mount Vernon Bank & Trust (Iowa).