Joseph Hardy, Owner Of Biggest U.S. Building Material Chain, Dies At 100

Joseph Hardy III, founder of the 84 Lumber chain of building materials stores, the biggest in the US, and developer of the Nemacolin resort, has died. He was 100.

Photo Insert: Born January 7, 1923, in Pittsburgh, Hardy attended Lehigh University and in his final year there enlisted in the US Army Air Corps, serving as a radioman during World War II.

A statement provided by the company said the family had lost its “patriarch and all-around great man.”

A profile posted on the company website said he passed away on his 100th birthday Saturday ”surrounded by his loving family singing Broadway show tunes to comfort him at his home in Farmington.”

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports Hardy was credited with “rethinking the lumber business in the late 1950s with a cash-and-carry approach focused on professional contractors and builders.”

He then expanded the company to become the nation’s largest privately-owned building materials supplier.

He also developed the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort & Spa, now known simply as Nemacolin, and entered the harness-racing business, operating the Meadows Racetrack in North Strabane Township in Washington County.

Born January 7, 1923, in Pittsburgh, Hardy attended Lehigh University and in his final year there enlisted in the US Army Air Corps, serving as a radioman during World War II.

After the war, he worked in the family-owned jewelry store, earned an industrial engineering degree at the University of Pittsburgh, and with family and a friend started Green Hills Lumber, which eventually became 84 Lumber.

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