Arthur M. Hartigan

O who can ever praise enough the world of his belief?

W.H. Auden, Poem, 1972

Arthur Hartigan was born to Grace and Matthew Hartigan on March 29, 1930, as their fourth child, preceded by Barbara, Virginia, and Grace. He grew up in Westfield, New Jersey. Art was a excellent student and an accomplished athlete at the high school level, competing in football, basketball, and track in the hurdles and the javelin (for which he won the state championship in 1948).

Art served in the Navy during the Korean conflict as a meteorologist, stationed in Guam. Afterwards he attended college at Lehigh University where he earned an engineering degree. Art entered the workforce as a salesman, moving from one industry to another, before settling into packaging with the Mead Corporation, where he advanced over several years before eventually joining Federal Packaging, then, in the 1980’s, striking out on his own as a consultant with his business, Cork Packaging.

Art met Dudley Miller (née Klinck) in 1957, they married, and in 1959 Patrick was born. The family of Art, Dudley, Mike (Miller) and Patrick moved as Art’s work demanded, living in Baltimore, Maryland, outside Atlanta, Georgia, and in Andover, Massachusetts, before moving to Montclair, New Jersey in 1969. In 1977 Art and Dudley divorced and Art married Nadia Leccese (née Guerbo). Art and Nadia lived in New York City, New York then moved to Haddonfield, New Jersey. In the early 1990’s Art and Nadia moved to Seal Beach, California, where Art and Nadia were active in the Jehovah’s Witness community in Huntington Beach. Nadia died in 2019.

Art enjoyed good food and drink and had a lively sense of humor. He could be generous and enjoyed sharing the things he loved: introducing Mike to golf (and the Yankees), showing Pat how to body surf (and play Skee Ball!) - taking a memorable jaunt up to Portland, Oregon to visit Pat and his wife, Endi, and their son (Art’s grandson), Jackson - going on vacations with his sister, Grace, or just kidding around with his niece, Donna Seesee and her sisters, Pam and Bobbie (Barbara’s daughters). Art was a great story teller: he was quick to identify “characters,” people with outgoing personalities who he loved to engage in conversation. He was an effective and accomplished salesman and consultant, as a businessman, and as an interlocutor in his ministry activities later in life.

Art was gregarious. He was a long-time supporter of the Delta Upsilon fraternity, from his Lehigh University days, and his years as an athlete, in high school, college, and in the Navy, fostered in him a love of teamwork and camaraderie. Many of these associations, friendships, and relationships, however, including contact with family, fell away over the years as Art focused more and more on his life with Nadia and the generous Jehovah’s Witness community in Huntington Beach. Then, in the summer of 2022, I was contacted by Camille Reyes, dad’s caregiver and friend, who told me that dad's health had suddenly declined. I flew down from Portland, Oregon to spend two weeks at the hospital with him. We talked over practical matters and decisions, or I simply held Dad's hand as the hours slipped away. Threaded throughout that time was a comfort, pleasure, and peace that neither one of us could have anticipated, or planned, or explained, except, perhaps, that the only thing left to us in the end, the one lasting thing, was the love that we shared for each other.

Rest in peace, Dad.

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