Los Gatos History: Bernard Hardwicke Was True Romantic

The following information is taken from an obituary that appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times on June 2, 1999. 

Bernard George "Bern" Hardwicke was born in Minneapolis on June 18, 1903. 

He moved to Aptos in 1924, attended the University of Southern California and, in 1933, married Los Gatos native Mima Templeman. 

Until his 1966 retirement, Hardwicke was the owner of Los Gatos' A. W. Templeman Hardware, a pioneer Santa Clara County business operated by his father-in-law, Arthur Templeman. 

In the late 1960s, Hardwicke lived in Mentone, France and then Belvedere, CA, before returning to Santa Cruz. 

Hardwicke was an active volunteer with the Presbyterian Church of Los Gatos and the Santa Cruz Congregational Church. 

He was a member of the Los Gatos Kiwanis Club and the Saratoga Men's Club. 

He was also romantic, refilling and inscribing in 1993 the same satin heart-shaped See's Candies' box he had given his wife for Valentine's Day 60 years ago.

Son John Templeman Hardwicke preceded his father in death. 

Survivors included his wife of 66 years, Mima Hardwicke of Santa Cruz; sons Arthur Terrence Hardwicke of Reno, NV; Bernard William "Bill" Hardwicke of Los Gatos and Robert Anthony Hardwicke of Canyon; also five grandchildren. 

In a 2009 interview with Judy Peterson of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, Mima stated, "We eloped entirely because of the Depression. We didn't want to impose the cost of a wedding on my parents or on Bern's either." 

And in another 2009 interview with Peggy Conaway, then-Los Gatos Library director, Mima, age 100, said, "When Bern first saw me coming up the block, he knew I was "the one."

The couple were married in a little church in Monterey. 

Source: Hooked on Los Gatos, the Library and Museum History Project

Mima Templeman Collection

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