Former North Las Vegas councilman Brent Hardy dies
As a city councilman and founding member of the Southern Nevada Water Authority board, Warren Brent Hardy helped secure the land and water that allowed North Las Vegas to grow into Nevada’s fourth-largest city.
Hardy died at home Tuesday at age 78.
He was born Oct. 14, 1933, in LaVerkin, Utah. He served in the U.S. Army in Korea just as the war ended and as a Mormon missionary in China in the late 1950s before earning a degree in economics from the University of Utah.
On Dec. 16, 1960, he married Elaine Taylor in the Salt Lake Temple.
Hardy moved his family to North Las Vegas in 1973 to help his younger brother, Eldon, run Hardy’s OK Tires.
He wound up serving on the City Council from 1986 to 1993, a tenure that saw him play an instrumental role in the creation of the water authority and the acquisition of 7,500 acres on which the Eldorado and Aliante master-planned communities now sit.
“He helped make the authority what it is today,” said Pat Mulroy, general manager for the regional water wholesaler. “He cared deeply about the welfare of all of Southern Nevada, not just North Las Vegas.”
Hardy’s son, former state Sen. Warren Hardy, said all of that grew from his father’s patriotism. “He felt like he owed it to his country and to wherever he was living to try to make it better.”
He was heavily involved in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for which he held several positions and worked in China several times.
North Las Vegas Mayor Shari Buck went to the same church as Hardy and lived next door to him when he was serving on the City Council. She considered him a mentor in both government affairs and religious matters.
“I never heard him say an unkind word about another person, and he loved North Las Vegas,” Buck said. “I would say he was one of the best men I have ever known.”
Hardy is survived by his wife of 51 years; sisters DeLora Leavitt and Lana Freelove; children Dianne Tobler, Warren Hardy, Rebecca Robb Wagner, Hance Hardy, and Jared Hardy; 23 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
A public viewing will be 5 to 8 p.m. today, and a funeral will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, both at the LDS Stake Center, 4040 E. Wyoming.
Hardy will be buried in LaVerkin.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Mormon church.
Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@review journal.com or 702-383-0350.
