Presidential Rank of Meritorious Senior Professional
Dr. Henry Dardy, 2008
I lost one of my best friends, the parish deacon. His sister called me last Saturday to let me know that Deacon Hank collapsed while doing yardwork at his home. Hank was a great scientist and man of faith. He was instrumental in the creation of several corporations worth hundreds of billions of dollars. He ranked with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. The only difference was that he was more interested in being a prophet than in making profits. Along with his lab and those who worked with and under him, he invented and perfected all sorts of things. He worked with Lucas over the computerization of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. He was behind high speed data transmission and in collaboration with ABC and Disney helped to perfect HDTV. He worked for his country and the Navy. He loved his Country, his Church, and his Community. I will never forget this quiet and good man. Last Friday he did the parish Stations of the Cross for me. He preached two weeks ago and gave one of the best homilies I had ever heard; I even said so from the altar. No task was too great or too small. This world-class scientist replaced my light bulbs and fixed the clocks. He set up for Masses, performed baptisms, and proclaimed the Good News. He believed. He was living evidence that there need be no contradiction between being a person of science and a man of faith.
Bishop Martin Holley presided at his funeral and I was honored to preach. Many of his deacon classmates attended. The church was packed with friends, family and colleagues.
I will miss him very much. Everyone loved him. Goodbye Hank, until we meet again in the Lord . . .
OBITUARY
Deacon Dr. HENRY D. DARDY “Hank” (Age 67)
On Saturday, February 27, 2010 in La Plata, MD, the beloved brother of Sr. Mary Ann Dardy and Anthony “Tony” Dardy; brother-in-law of Barbara G. Dardy; uncle of Lisa D. McGee and Mark D. Dardy; nephew of Anna M. Lindich.
Family and friends may call at Holy Family Catholic Church, 12010 Woodmore Rd., Mitchellville, MD 20721 on Wednesday, March 3 from 6 to 8 p.m. where Mass of Christian Burial will be offered on Thursday, March 4 at 10 a.m. Interment on Friday, March 5 at 11 a.m. in Calvary Cemetery in Cleveland, OH. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in his memory to either Holy Family Catholic church or John Carroll University, 20700 North Park Blvd., University Heights, OH 44118.
Filed under: Archdiocese, Catholic, Church, Discipleship, Parish |
Blogger Priest 
Carter Bullard writes on 23 March 2010:
Gentle people,
I’m very sad to announce that Dr. Hank Dardy passed away earlier this month.
Hank was Chief Scientist for Computational Sciences at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. A brilliant scientist/engineer, Hank’s contributions to computing and communications were HUGE, pivotal.
I called him Dr. HD (high definition) because of the massive amount of work he did to champion HDTV in the US DoD, NASA and commercial broadcasting. Without Hank, you and I wouldn’t be enjoying the SuperBowl or March Madness on big wide screen HDTV’s, at least not this decade.
Hank was involved in the original Arpanet, directed a DoD supercomputing facility, and established one of the first national high speed networking testbeds. In that role, Hank supported research projects that eventually produced some of the big stories in computer
networking. He was in the background in the revolution in routers, switches and optical networking, and his efforts touched almost everyone in the industry.
Hank and I met at one of the early Internet Society meetings, but we didn’t start working together until the early beginnings of ATM networking. For the last 3 years or so, I’ve had the rare privilege to work directly with Hank, thinking of ways to help things go much much faster.
Hank was one of those people that made life very special. I will really miss Hank.
Carter
god called him up and gave him a happy place forever.
I’m very sorry for the loss of your friend, Father Joe.
May his souls and all the souls of the faithfully departed, by the mercy of God, rest in peace.
My deepest sympathy and condolences to you on the loss of your friend.