William Howard Hardesty, III

William Howard Hardesty, III, 86, passed away peacefully on August 16, 2025, in Oxford Ohio. He was preceded in death by his parents, William H. Hardesty, Jr., and Catherine Kerwin Hardesty, his wife, Patricia Whaley Hardesty, and his brother, Robert Patrick Hardesty. Bill was born on September 8, 1938, in Chester, Pennsylvania. Although his father’s career in the Army Quartermaster Corps meant that he grew up in many places including post-war Japan and Germany, Bill always considered the Philadelphia area home. After graduating Marist School in Atlanta, Georgia, Bill attended the University of Maryland, Munich Campus. He returned home to Philadelphia and completed his degrees in English literature at the University of Pennsylvania (A.B., 1959, A.M., 1960). While at Penn, he met Patricia Anne Whaley. The two shared a love of literature and classical music, as well as their sense of humor. They wed in May 1963.

A member of the US Navy Reserve, Bill served on the USS Myles C. Fox in the Mediterranean and when the ship’s port was Boston. In 1965, Bill had the opportunity to serve as an instructor in the English Department at the U.S. Naval Academy. He spent several years there and always spoke highly about the quality of the students he taught in Annapolis. After completing his active duty, Bill and Pat returned to the Philadelphia area and he completed his graduate studies at Penn (Ph.D., 1970). In 1969, Bill was appointed to the English faculty at Miami University. He, Pat, and their young family moved to Oxford, Ohio.

Bill spent the remainder of his career at Miami, fully retiring as Professor Emeritus in 2010. His original specialty was nineteenth-century British literature, but he also taught science fiction and fantasy, technical writing, and contemporary British literature. At Miami, he served for a time as head of the Honors Program and eventually as associate chair of English. Known as an excellent classroom instructor, Bill enjoyed teaching in Miami’s programs in Luxembourg, London, and, for many summers, Florence. In addition to his academic career, Bill continued service in the Naval Reserve. Before retiring in 1991, he was deployed to Bahrain in the aftermath of the Gulf War. One of Bill’s most meaningful personal accomplishments was that his father, an Army colonel, saw Bill promoted to the equivalent rank of captain, USN.

After Pat’s death, Bill was fortunate to find another soulmate in Dr. Jean Ann Lutz, a fellow English professor. During retirement, the two of them enjoyed their mutual love of the arts and travel together. Bill also had time to pursue his life-long hobby of photography, although the greatest joy of Bill’s retirement was spending time with family and seeing his grandchildren grow into adulthood. Bill is survived by his children, William W. Hardesty (Skye) and Anne C. Hardesty (Michael Hill) and Anne’s children Gordon Chiccehitto and Lucy Chiccehitto; by his sisters, Nancy M. Hardesty (Richard Jones) and Sheila Trefz, and nieces and nephews Richard V. Trefz, III, Catherine Trefz, Brian Hardesty, and Christina Hardesty and their children; and by Jean’s sister, Mary Lou Beckett, and nieces, Jean Michaels and Jennifer Beckett.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Bill’s memory to the Animal Adoption Foundation in Hamilton, Ohio, https://aafpets.org/donate  or to another charitable organization.

Relatives and friends are invited to honor William at a Visitation, Wednesday, August 27, 2025, 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM at St. John Chrysostom Church, 617 S. Providence Road, Wallingford, PA 19086, followed by a Funeral Mass commencing at 10:30 AM. Interment thereafter at St. Thomas the Apostle Cemetery, Glen Mills, PA.