Truckin' on the Western Branch

Porter Hardy IV Porter Hardy IV, grandson of Congressman Porter Hardy Jr., grew up a surfer in the north end of Virginia Beach but still feels his grandfather’s influence. Hardy is president of Smartmouth Brewery in Norfolk.

In my job, relationship-building is important, as is being an active member of the community. I am inspired by my grandfather in manners and in how to forge relationships. He was his own man—and I want to be too. After seven and a half years as a lawyer, becoming a brewer was a big step.

My grandfather never talked about his political career as I was growing up. But he did talk about growing up as son of a circuit-riding Methodist preacher in Bedford and driving his father around to the churches in a Model T.

His ego was not wrapped up in being a congressman. His identity was as a farmer. When he sold the farmhouse before I was born, he saved an acre to grow watermelons and cantaloupes for his grandchildren. He was very caring—said everyone was 98 percent the same—and was good at finding the similarities in people rather than the differences. His public speaking skills came from listening to his father preach and then giving his own sermons to his playmates while standing on a soapbox.

When he shook hands, he would sort of pull you in and put his arm around you.

He, Jack Kennedy, and Richard Nixon were all freshmen congressmen in 1946. Later when Jack Kennedy coaxed him to pass some legislation that my grandfather knew his constituents didn’t want, he told Kennedy, “Don’t you come down here and try to get that pushed through—my people here don’t want it and I’m more popular here than you are.”

Porter Hardy IV. Image by Sheally

Previous page: U.S. Congressman Porter Hardy Jr. (front seat) and John F. Kennedy (on back) at a Norfolk, Virginia, campaign appearance, and (inset) Porter Hardy Jr. with his grandson Porter Hardy IV.

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