Thomas W. “Tom” Hardy, a professor of art history who also taught English and the humanities at the Annandale Campus of Northern Virginia Community College for 40 years and whose colleagues and many students considered his art history courses as “legendary,” died Oct. 30 at the age of 81.

Friends and family members said the cause of death was complications associated with sepsis.

In addition to teaching art history, English, and humanities for students at Northern Virginia Community College, which college officials refer to as NOVA, Hardy offered art appreciation courses for community members through the college’s Lifetime Learning Institution, according to a statement released by the college.

The statement says Hardy also conducted numerous trips for students and NOVA colleagues to the art capitals of Europe and taught an undergraduate seminar on European Baroque Art at D.C.’s George Washington University.

“Professor Hardy’s colleagues remember him as a witty and erudite gentleman,” J.K. Daniels, dean of Languages, Arts, and Social Sciences at the Annandale Campus, said in the statement. “His former dean noted that ‘Professor Hardy was a devoted teacher whose students praised him for the passion he exhibited for his subjects,’” Daniels said.

“His art history courses were legendary, brim-filled with images from his own photography collection and others,” said Daniels.

“A gifted professor, his lectures for courses in English, art history and humanities drew upon a rich background in literature, music, philosophy, and religions,” according to two other colleagues at NOVA, Duncan Tebow, former Dean and Art Professor Emeritus; and Betsy Tebow, Art History Professor Emeritus.

“His scholarly interests and publications ranged from Constantine era tombs and Palladian villas to 20th century abstraction,” the two said. “He also supported college art programs, organizing student art shows, and arranging lectures by visiting scholars. Tom was always a warm, witty, bright presence on campus, generous with his time and talents,” they said.

Hardy was born and raised in Washington, D.C., where he lived nearly all his life, friends and family members said. His nephew, Greg DeLuca, said Hardy and his domestic partner of 50 years, Carl Spier, lived for more than 20 years in a townhouse in the Capitol Hill East neighborhood on the same street where Hardy lived as a child with his parents while growing up.

Coming from a Catholic family, he graduated from D.C.’s Catholic Gonzaga High School. DeLuca and Spier believe Hardy received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill before receiving his master’s degree in English at UNC Chapel Hill. He earned a master’s in art history degree from George Washington University, DeLuca said.
DeLuca said Hardy worked for a short time at the Library of Congress before embarking on his teaching career at NOVA. The NOVA statement provided to the Washington Blade says Hardy’s tenure as a professor there began in 1970 and continued through 2009 at the time of his retirement.

Friends said Hardy and partner Spier regularly attended the Sunday Catholic Mass offered by D.C.’s LGBTQ Catholic organization Dignity Washington.

One longtime friend, David Lambdin, said he and others enjoyed going with Hardy to D.C. art museums, including the National Gallery of Art, where Hardy provided insight and “opened my eyes to what I was seeing.”

DeLuca said that in retirement Hardy did a lot of traveling with Spier throughout Europe as well as Egypt. Friends said Hardy also continued organizing art history trips to Italy and other European nations, for friends and family members.

DeLuca describes Hardy as a “great” uncle who was “generous, happy, sarcastic, witty, and smart” and who would brighten a room.

“I had many talks with him in his last few months while bedridden,” DeLuca said. “He wasn’t bitter. He told me he had a very good life with no real regrets.”

Spier stated in a Facebook posting that Hardy passed away at the Ashby Ponds assisted living and retirement facility in Ashburn, Va., where he and Spier had been living for the past few years while Hardy was under treatment for sepsis.

“My friend and companion for over 50 years, I loved him and will miss him forever,” Spier wrote.

Hardy’s ashes were interred at a graveside ceremony at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hillcrest Heights, Md., on Dec. 3. Dignity Washington held a memorial Mass in Hardy’s honor the following day on Dec. 4, at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church. Father Alexei Michelanko presided over the Mass, which was followed by a celebration of life gathering at the church’s fellowship hall.

“In his 81 years, Tom lived a full life and touched many people,” Michelanko said. “He spent those years not simply concerned with himself but being of service to others primarily as that of art historian. And in the process, he was beautifying his own life, with passion, pleasure, and joy.”

Hardy is survived by his partner of 50 years Carl Spier; his younger sister Merrill Breighner; his brother-in-law Tom DeLuca; five nieces and nephews, including Greg DeLuca, Christine DeLuca, Karen Devore, Joe Breighner, and Emily Kowalski; and many friends, including David Lambdin of Arlington, Va. and Larry Smelser of Baltimore. He is predeceased by his sisters Maryanne Hardy and Elizabeth DeLuca.