Obituaries : Robert Allen Hardison; Pioneer Family Member

Robert Allen Hardison, a member of a pioneering Ventura County ranching family, died Thursday of heart failure at his Santa Paula home. He was 89.

Born Jan. 13, 1907, Hardison was part of a family that had moved to Ventura County in the 1860s. Hardison’s uncle, Wallace Hardison, helped found the Limoneira Co. in 1893.

Robert Hardison attended Santa Paula High School and studied economics at Stanford University. After his graduation from Stanford, in 1929, he returned to Ventura County to work for his family’s Hardison Ranch, which grew citrus and avocados in the Santa Clara River Valley.

After serving four years in the Army Air Corps during World War II, Hardison spent the rest of his life in the county’s agricultural community.

“That was in the genes,” said his daughter, Dorcas Hardison Kimball Thille of Santa Paula.

During his long career, Hardison served as a director of the Limoneira Co., the Ventura County Citrus Exchange and Sunkist Growers. He was a director and president of both Santa Paula Savings and Loan and Ventura County Mutual Fire Insurance Co.

Hardison also participated in many civic organizations, including the Boy Scouts, Rotary Club, the local Masonic Lodge and the Santa Paula Hospital Foundation.

“He often said, when you live in a community, it’s what you make of it,” Thille said.

Other survivors include his wife of 65 years, Mary Louise Hardison; son Logan Hardison of Redlands; sister Janette H. Romney of Santa Paula; nine grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

The memorial service is planned for 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Universalist Unitarian Church of Santa Paula. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Skillin-Carroll Mortuary.

In lieu of flowers, Hardison’s family suggests that memorial contributions be made to the Santa Paula Memorial Hospital Foundation or the Blanchard Community Library Endowment Fund.