DONORS:

Jan Hardaswick, Michael J. Perry, Tom and Renetta Cade, Larry Dickerson,

Kenny Sterner, Mike and Karen Yates, Lance and Lori Christensen, Steve

Sherrod, Keith Carpenter, The North American Falconers’ Association

HARDASWICK

MEMORIAL

by Tom Cade

Vic Hardaswick came to

work for The Peregrine

Fund at Cornell University

in 1981, bringing his wife

and two daughters to live in

a countryside setting a few

miles from Ithaca, New York. Jim Weaver hired him to help with our

growing effort to propagate Peregrines for reintroduction in the eastern

states, because he had a laboratory background working with animals

in a research department at Yale University and in helping to establish

a Primate Center, specializing in prosimians, at Duke University. He

was an avid and accomplished falconer who had already produced some

falcons of his own and was a devotee of all things to do with Peregrines.

He became an integral part of the Cornell breeding team that consisted

of Jim Weaver, Willard Heck, and Phyllis Dague, and various graduate

students. Together they raised more than 1,500 falcons, hawks, and

eagles between 1972 and 1986.

Vic and I worked together on some things, including a paper on

the breeding and reintroduction of Peregrine Falcons published in

Avicultural Magazine in 1985. When our Cornell breeding program

moved out to join our new World Center facility in Boise, Idaho in

1986, Vic joined Don Hunter in Centerville, South Dakota to run a

private, commercial raptor breeding operation, which he later took

over on his own There he produced many ﬁne Peregrines, Gyrfalcons,

and Goshawks. He specialized in breeding white Gyrs, from the original

Cornell stock, and white Goshawks obtained from eastern Siberia.

Many of his Peregrines were used for reintroduction in the Midwest and

to some extent on the East Coast.

In 1992 the federal Wild Bird Conservation Act was signed into law,

ostensibly to control the excessive commercial trade in exotic birds

for pets. For a time it appeared that this law might also preclude the

import and export of wild birds for propagation at zoos, research

facilities, and for aviculture generally. Vic quietly worked long and hard

behind the scenes with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.

S. Scientiﬁc Authority for CITES to develop a permitting system that

came to be known as the “Cooperative Breeding Program” to allow

for continued international shipment of wild birds for speciﬁc captive

breeding purposes. These regulations went into effect in October

of 2000, and Vic was the ﬁrst raptor breeder to be approved for this

program. Few falconers or

breeders know how important

Vic’s efforts were in securing

this regulatory provision.

Vic was always a falconer. With

good friends Kent Christopher

and Keith Carpenter, Vic

and I hawked sage grouse in

eastern Idaho. I saw Vic’s last

successful ﬂight one season

when his big, white gyr, Shaka,

caught her 25th consecutive

grouse without missing a

day. I will never forget those

inimitable days when big

falcons pursued big grouse

over vast expanses of sky and

we were falconers, a time made all the more memorable because of ﬁne

companions and the stories Vic and Kent tell in their book.

Vic was very generous with his friends; he was helpful to anyone he could determine was sincere and

motivated to try falconry, any aspect of falconry. In spite of deteriorating health, Vic and Jan continued

to produce some of the ﬁnest falconry birds available anywhere. In the last decade, their good friend,

falconer, and highly successful breeder, Lance Christensen became a full partner in the project and many

of the birds were moved to his facility. Vic was a great man, husband, father, and friend. He truly loved our

sport and felt a deep, abiding, and increasingly rare need to give back to our community and the animals that

had enriched his life. We will miss our friend; falconry will miss a champion. ~Ralph Rogers

a mentor, teacher and friend

by Mike Perry

I think that when most falconers reflect on their early years, there is one person who stands above the

rest in their influence and teachings. For me, that person was Vic Hardaswick.

I met Vic and his lovely wife “Tiger” in the fall of 1958. Years later I would learn her real name is Jan. She called him “Vic”

but when she addressed him as “Victor”, he knew she was serious and he listened. They had come to East Lansing so Vic

could study at Michigan State University. At the time, my mom worked as the university librarian in charge of circulation.

When Vic discovered that all the falconry books had been checked out, in typical Vic fashion, he went right to the top to find

out who had them. My mom said he should meet her son.

I was 17 and had been struggling for 8 years without ever meeting another falconer. When my mom gave Vic our address,

he came right over. He was only a few years older than me, but light years ahead in falconry. When I first met him, I was star

struck. My messiah had come to lead me out of the darkness and indeed he did! I remember proudly showing him my first

BC. I had never seen one but had read a vague description. Vic saw it and his first question was “Why are all the nooses

lying down?” My reply: “Well, so the hawks won’t see them.” Boy, did he set me straight in a hurry.

That Christmas vacation, Vic invited me to visit him at his house in Seymour, Connecticut. His pigeon lofts were full of

pouters, rollers, tumblers, helmuts, homers, and the like. He was a student of avian genetics and his pigeons showed it. He

introduced me to the famous author-researcher Dr. Leon Whitney. Then we were off to New Jersey to meet Lou Woyce. The

three of us then went back to Philly to meet Corney McFadden and Bob Berry. At Corney’s, Vic saw his first German goshawk.

Who would have guessed what that encounter would lead to!

Vic and Lou were responsible for getting me my first beach bird. We flew our falcons behind the university everyday in

1968. Vic and Lou invited me to join them on Assateague trapping beach birds. That week was the greatest vacation I ever

took.

Vic was adept at letting someone else do the leg work and then share in the fruits of their labor. Vic would track down a

biologist, professor, or Audubon birder who had discovered an active gos nest. We meet them, not as falconers, but as

interested birders. Vic knew all the right people to open doors for us. He always told me: “If you want lion cubs, you have to

go into the lion’s den.”

In the 50’s and 60’s, we did not have telemetry. We listened for her bells. Good bells were hard to come by. We got mostly

Indian and Pakistani bells. Some were not too bad but all lacked durability. The German George Richter was the stratavarious

of falcon bell-makers. His bells simply were the best. Vic used to say he would not mind losing a bird, but he would sure

hate to lose the Richter bells she had on. When Richter bells became very difficult to obtain, Vic took matters into his own

hands. With his best Richter bells in his pocket, he marched through the front door of one of the largest steel companies in

America. He challenged their metallurgist to duplicate the bells’ alloy. In the end, they did. They did a spectroanalysis and

fabricated the metal. Vic could now make his own quality bells. This exemplifies who Vic Hardaswick was.

In the early 60’s, Vic went to Durham, then to Cornell, and finally to Centerville. He partnered with Don Hunter to breed

raptors. We kept in touch throughout the years. Finally in 2009 I went to Centerville to see what they had accomplished. It

was most impressive, quite possibly the most diversified collection of goshawks in the world.

Vic was never very good at tying up loose ends of his many deals. The filling out of applications for permits, reports,

records, and all the clerical work was left to Jan. She was his cornerstone, his lynchpin. Everything they accomplished, they

did as a team. Vic was very proud of Jan’s accomplishments. Jan caught his eye when she won the mathematics competition

for the state of Connecticut. No small achievement. Vic had found his lifelong partner.

Vic called me a couple of years ago. We were reminiscing about the good times we had in East Lansing. He astonished me

by reciting my old house address, the street I lived on, and things about my family I had long forgotten. I am sure those

facts had not crossed his mind in over 50 years. He possessed the greatest capacity for recall of any person I have ever

known. I do not believe I ever heard Vic say “I don’t remember.”

I just have to believe that there must be raptors and dogs in heaven. Otherwise, it would not be heaven for people like you,

me and Vic. I suspect that when and if I make it there, I will find Vic with a bevy of goshawks and a couple of high flying

gyrs. He certainly knew how to make them fly in the clouds.

After all is said and done, what really matters most is not how many glorious birds you’ve flown, or how they flew, or the

numbers of head taken. But rather the enduring lifelong friendships that so enrich our lives.

Thank you Victor Hardaswick for being my friend.

Jan was his

cornerstone,

his lynchpin.

Everything they

accomplished,

they did as a

team.