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Joseph A. Hardy III is a true American success story, rising from a college student selling home-grown vegetables door-to-door to becoming the Founder and CEO of what today is the largest privately owned building materials supplier to professional contractors - 84 Lumber Company.
After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with an Engineering degree, Joe quickly became the top-producing salesman for the family's Hardy & Hayes jewelry company. Yet, at the age of 31, and with the burning desire to build his own business his own way, Joe left Hardy & Hayes. At the suggestion of a friend, Joe looked into the building materials supply business and opened Green Hills Lumber. A few years later, Joe pooled his resources with his two younger brothers and a friend to purchase a tract of land in the rural town of Eighty Four, Pennsylvania. There, in 1956, he opened a 'cash and carry' lumber yard focused on professional home builders in the tri-state region of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. Joe liked the sound of the name of the small Washington County town and decided to name his new business, 84 Lumber Company.
Joe Hardy
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