Jessie May (Hoenk) HARDMAN

HARDMAN, HOENK, BUFFINGTON

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 11/3/2008 at 10:55:06

Jessie Hardman
(1912-2000)

Jessie May Hardman (nee Hoenk) was born in Vincent, Iowa on June 23, 1912, the daughter of May Buffington (1876-1952) and Albert Raymond Hoenk (1876-1969). Her parents were divorced when she was very young, leaving her mother to support her and her two older brothers (Howard and Raymond) as a dressmaker. By 1930 her mother had taken Jessie to live in Long Beach, California, where she met and married Harvey H. Hardman (1912-1968); they had two children: Susan and Richard. Jessie and Harvey also discovered a mutual attraction to minerals early in their marriage while on a trip to Mexico, and became avid mineral collectors. They belonged to several mineral clubs in southern California including the Long Beach Mineral and Gem Society, the Southern California Micro-Mineralogists, and the Mineralogical Society of Southern California. Jessie held offices in all of them. Jessie was also a frequent exhibitor of her minerals at the local, CFMS and AFMS shows, traveled frequently, and was a regular speaker at club meetings. She loved to trade thumbnail and micromount specimens with her contacts around the world. In 1979 she served as CFMS President, and received the Golden Bear Award in 1980. She was at one time the Chairman of the CFMS Rules Committee, and wrote the first CFMS Show Guidelines; she was also on the AFMS Uniform Rules Committee and wrote the first Exhibitor's Handbook, as well as many instructional articles on judging and on Federation history, and served for many years as a judge at CFMS and AFMS Shows. She was inducted into the National Rockhound and Lapidary Hall of Fame in 1999. Jessie was a teacher at heart and enjoyed working with young people. She taught Physical Education in the Long Beach high schools, at Long Beach City College, and in the Long Beach Recreation Department for many years. Following her retirement from teaching she served on the staff of the Camp Fire Girls in Long Beach.

Jessie Hardman died June 25, 2000 in Long Beach, California. Most of her comprehensive mineral collection was donated to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, where she had volunteered weekly since the 1960's, and was a founding member of the museum's Gem and Mineral Council. The micromount portion of her collection went to the Southern California Micro-Mineralogists.

The Mineralogical Record
http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?colid=797