David R. Hardy (1917-1976) Papers (KC0319)
David R. Hardy was born in Versailles, Missouri in 1917. He attended Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, where he was a member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity. In 1939, he graduated from the University of Missouri School of Law and moved to Kansas City. He entered the Army as a private in World War II, and attained the rank of Captain while serving in the Military Police. Hardy became active in Jackson County politics in the late 1940s. A Democrat, he was a leading spokesman against the Pendergast machine. He was chairman of the Committee for County Progress and crusaded against factional politics, urging county government reform. Hardy campaigned for the nonpartisan court plan to be instituted in the state and won a position on the 16th Circuit Judicial Commission panel.
Hardy was a senior partner for the law firm, Shook, Hardy and Bacon. He was a trial lawyer who specialized in product liability, libel, First Amendment rights, and antitrust matters. For many years, he was regional attorney for the Wabash Railroad (later known as the Norfolk and Western Railway Company) and counsel for the Kansas City Star. He was admitted to the American College of Trial Lawyers and was a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. He was also a member of the American Bar Association, Missouri Bar Association, Kansas City Bar Association, and the Kansas City Lawyers Association. Hardy served as chairman of the Mayor’s Commission on Civil Disorder, a group appointed by Ilus Davis to study the city’s disturbances during the week of April 8, 1968.
Hardy was a life elder of Country Club Christian Church. He and his wife, Eleanor, had a son, David, and a daughter, Sally. David R. Hardy died at the age of 59 on September 28, 1976.
Hardy’s papers consist of the records of the Mayor’s Commission on Civil Disorder and include correspondence, reports, interviews and statements, clippings, and printed and published materials. There is also a copy of the final report and recommendations, as well as a cassette tape (copied from reel-to-reel) of an appearance by Al Capp at Indiana State University in 1968. The recording was given to the Commission for reference use. 1965-1976.
one cubic foot MICROFILMED, one cassette tape.
© WHMC-KC, University of Missouri
updated:
Friday, October 10, 2008
Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Kansas City
(816) 235-1543 WHMCKC@umkc.edu