Mary Reyes Hardy, age 101, of Stratford, Connecticut, died peacefully in her home at
Academy Hill on January 9, 2018. Mary was the long serving Executive Director and member of the Board of Trustees at the Sterling House Community Center of Stratford. She was predeceased on November 21, 2016 by her beloved husband of 74 years, Vincent L. Hardy at age 96.

Mary was born on November 26, 1916 in Newark, NJ to her mother Mary Louise Sokowiki and her father Felix Bednarsky. As a two year old child, Mary lost her father to the Spanish flu epidemic. Her mother remarried a Mister Reyes who then adopted Mary as his own.

The family eventually moved to Stratford from New Jersey where she attended Stratford schools. By the time she graduated from Stratford High School in 1935 she had already become a familiar face at Sterling House Community Center, where she began work as a part time unpaid volunteer in 1933, just one year after the agency was founded.

She was always eager to tackle any job, including office work, painting, program assistance, child care, plays, dances, musicals, art exhibits, socials, senior citizen open house programs, as well as flower growing and arrangements.

To further her education, in 1941 she was sent by Sterling House to Boston, Massachusetts, for one year as an understudy with the Max Nelson organization in the field of social work, in five settlement houses of East Boston. During that time Mary learned that the settlement house or community center is to serve the needs of its people.

In 1942, on the Sterling House grounds, she married Vincent Hardy, a New Hampshire native, who from that time on, except for two years with the US Army in WWII, would be put to work at Sterling House doing various carpentry, plumbing, painting, HVAC and other tasks. This was all when he wasn't working as an engineer, first with Vought-Sikorsky and then Sikorsky Aircraft.

In 1953, after 20 years in various positions of service at Sterling House, Mary was appointed Executive Director, and her dedication, caring, influence and leadership for the next 34 years positively affected thousands of people in many ways until her retirement in 1987.

Recalling her first volunteer service in 1933, Mary said, "Jobs were so hard to come by. My parents told me to stay with the center and I can still hear my mother saying, 'Something will come of this'". Something certainly did.

A bronze sculpture by James Michael Tripp entitled "Mary Hardy" was dedicated on April 6, 1990 and still occupies a prominent landing in the Sterling House library room on the first floor.

She was a long-time member of the Stratford United Methodist Church. In earlier times she was a Sunday school teacher and Church School Superintendent with this same church. She was also a prior member and Sunday school teacher of the First Congregational Church of Stratford.

Mary is survived by her brother-in-law, Everett Hardy of Hooksett, NH; a sister-in-law, Carol Hardy of Hooksett, NH; several nieces including Marilyn Pelletier of Hooksett, NH; Pauline Howe-Swatzburg of Reno, NV; Lisa Chronis of Pembroke, NH; Cara Cote of Chichester, NH and Cynthia Smith of Newport Richey, FL.

She is also survived by several nephews including Richard Hardy of Atlanta, GA; Bruce Hardy of Manchester, NH; Russell Hardy of Candia, NH; Tom Morse and David Morse of Candia, NH; Jon and Tom Hardy of Pembroke, NH; Timothy Reyes of St. Petersburg, FL; many great-nieces and great-nephews, and, by her dedicated caregiver, Doreen Mann of Bridgeport, CT.

Mary was also pre-deceased by her half-brother Robert Reyes of Dunnellon, FL and recently by a nephew, Mark Hardy of Candia, NH.

A memorial service will be held at 11:00 AM on Saturday, March 10, 2018, at Stratford United Methodist Church, 2600 Main St., Stratford.

Interment of ashes will follow at 12:30 PM of both Mary R. Hardy and her husband Vincent L. Hardy at the Congregational Burying Ground, which is located behind the Stratford Library at 2203 Main Street. Access is through the library driveway, once known as Cemetery Lane.

A reception in Mary's honor will follow at 1:00 PM, with refreshments, at the Sterling House Community Center, 2283 Main St, Stratford.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Stratford United Methodist Church, 2600 Main St, Stratford, CT 06615, or to the Sterling House Community Center, 2283 Main St, Stratford, CT 06615. To offer the family online condolences, please visit dennisanddarcy.com.