Identity area
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Authorized form of name
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Description area
Dates of existence
History
Reed “Rocky” G. Hart, Jr. was born on August 4, 1926, in Pipestone, Minnesota, to Reed Sr. and Marie (Johannsen) Hart. He grew up in Pipestone and graduated from high school in 1944. After graduation, he enlisted in the United States Army and served until the end of World War II. In 1947, he enrolled at the University of Minnesota, where he played on the freshman football team. He was later recalled to service during the Korean War and eventually returned to complete his B.S. degree in 1955.
Hart spent much of his professional life working on government contracts around the world, including assignments in Greenland, Guantanamo Bay (Cuba), Kwajalein (Marshall Islands), and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), as well as living in Washington, D.C.; San Diego, California; and New Orleans, Louisiana.
While stationed in Kwajalein and later in Saudi Arabia, Hart founded jogging clubs that organized races, events, and awards. A 1975 scrapbook notes, “October 8 [1975] Kwajalein loses Rocky Hart… Rocky has been a Kwaj resident for 8½ years and during that time organized the [jogging] club in 1968 and in the last five years has organized jogs, special events for the club and he even makes all the awards and trophies himself at the Special Services Hobby Shop.”
After retiring, Hart returned to Pipestone and later moved to Egan, Minnesota. In retirement, he founded the All-Star Jogging League, which served runners in southwestern Minnesota and southeastern South Dakota. At its height, the club had nearly 150 members.
Reed Hart passed away on July 14, 2014, at Dougherty Hospice House in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.