John W. Hardwick, 96, of Silver Spring, Maryland, and former Mayor of Barnesville, Ohio, died August 4, 2011, at Frederick Memorial Hospital. He was born February 4, 1915, in Barnesville, Ohio, a son of the late Clarence "Mike" and Marguerite Hinton Hardwick. He retired in 1979 as the Contract Review Attorney in the General Counsel's Office of the Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C., after 20 years of service. He was a member of the Commission's Incentive Award Committee, and on its Attorney Rating Board. He was a graduate of Barnesville Public High School and President of the class of 1933, a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University in 1937, and of the Ohio State University College of Law in 1940, and was admitted to the Ohio Bar. During this time he became a member of the Chi Phi social fraternity, the Pi Sigma Alpha honorary political science fraternity, the Delta Theta Phi Legal fraternity, and a counselor at Buckeye Boys State. His first position after law school was as Legal Advisor and Assistant Supervisor in the Cleveland Office for the Ohio Department of Liquor Control in 1941. While there, he was called into military service in World War II and later was honorably discharged as a Captain in the US Army Air Corps. He opened a law office in Barnesville after the war and was active in many community affairs. He was appointed as a WWII representative to the Belmont County Soldiers and Sailors Relief Commission; was elected Mayor of Barnesville in 1948; was President of Rotary; was a charter member and Exalted Ruler of the Elks; and was on the Board of Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church. He was also a member of the American Legion; of Friendship Lodge of the Masons and a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason; and an Aladdin Temple Shriner. He was inducted into the Barnesville, Ohio Area Education Foundation Hall of Fame in 2004 for his career as an "Attorney, Community Leader, and Public Servant." He moved to Columbus, Ohio, in 1950 where he served as an Assistant Attorney General of Ohio as Chief Counsel of the Attorney General's Office in the Ohio Bureau of Unemployment Compensation. He argued numerous cases before the Ohio Supreme Court on behalf of that agency. While in Columbus, he was President of Capitol Toastmasters Club; and became a Dale Carnegie instructor, conducting classes in both the Columbus and later the Washington, D.C. area. Mr. Hardwick had been a member of Hughes United Methodist Church, in Wheaton, Maryland, where he had served as Chairman of its Administrative Board and President of the Board of Trustees; and was selected as its Methodist Men's "Man of the Year" in 1999. He was more recently a member of the Riderwood Village Church of Silver Spring, Maryland. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his wife of 61 years, Dorothy Lynch Hardwick; a brother, Lt. Robert E. Hardwick, who was missing and declared dead in World War II; and a sister, Mary Joan Hardwick Ward. He is survived by three daughters and son-in-laws, Rev. Elaine Prince of Hagerstown, Maryland; Sue Ann and John Lewis of Ashland, Virginia; and Dr. Sally and R. Michael Digman of Morgantown , West Virginia; four grandchildrena