Daniel Hardy of St. Paul dies; history buff set out to prove Cu...

He researched storied Cushman Rice, possible model for Fitzgerald novel By Elizabeth Mohr [e-mail] Article Last Updated: 05/17/2008 10:32:57 PM CDT Daniel Hardy was a history buff who set out to ...

[anon]

a kind and great man. he will be missed awefully. rip

[Pat Martyn]

Dan will be missed by so many. Professionally, he was very much respected in the housing community.

Dan was a great promoter of homeowners' rights, and was an articulate spokesperson for the housing industry.

[Michael and Jane in Tokyo]

Dear Twin Cities.com ,
My wife and I had the greatest but briefest pleasure in meeting, for the one and only time, Daniel Hardy and Mary and their kids, Simon and Elspeth, in London and Oxford last July. Fellow panelists at the Fitzgerald Society, Dan and I were in England to champion our respective role models for its hitherto unrecognized part in the Jay Gatsby legend. Yet both of us instinctively felt that the other’s candidate had helped to make Fitzgerald’s hero great.
Our afternoon’s conversation beneath the majestic dome of the British Library, when Mary went off with Jane to look at Egyptian mummies and Lord Elgin’s Marbles, ranks among the golden moments of my literary life.
Just last week I did some sleuthing for Dan at the Diplomatic Record Office of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It turned out to be a wild goose chase, but I never minded the time I spent hunting down Dan the Man’s Tokyo hunches because he was my pal in St. Paul, who shared my passion for all things Fitzgerald.
Instead of e-mailing Dan this weekend about my visit to the Diplomatic Record Office, I’ll be writing a heartfelt letter of condolence to the Hardy family.
Dan is going to be more than missed out here. Jane and I mourn his passing and send our prayers to family members and friends—all those many, many folks whom he had to so prematurely leave behind as he sailed off for a new port of call.
With all sincere wishes,
Michael and Jane Workman
Tokyo, Japan