Hardin Hanks III, known as Bud, died in Fayetteville, Arkansas on February 24, 2025 while in hospice.  His death came exactly six months after the death of his wife.   Bud was born in Beardstown, Illinois on May 14, 1941 to Hardin E. Hanks and Martha Thompson Hanks.  After a semester at a small college in Carthage, Illinois Bud joined the Navy for four years.  During that time, he was stationed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba during that tense period of the missile crisis in 1962.  While there he met the woman with whom he would spend his life, Jeanette, or Jan, Thacker, the daughter of a U.S. civil servant.  They married in Puerto Rico on January 25, 1963.

After his discharge from the Navy, he and Jan and their young son joined the Hanks family in Riverside, California, where they had settled following his father’s retirement. After working odd jobs he joined the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1964, attending Riverside City College and Cal State Los Angeles while working full-time.  He received a bachelor’s degree in police science and administration  in 1970 and a master’s degree in health and safety in 1979. The following year he earned his second master’s degree in public administration at the University of Southern California.  While at USC, his main focus was labor relations, a passion he would put in practice after becoming president of the Riverside Sheriff’s Association in 1981.  A stalemate in contract negotiations that year led to the county’s first strike by sheriff’s deputies, marshals and district attorney investigators.  A newspaper described Bud at the negotiating table as sporting his trademark cowboy hat and boots—his accent telling of his rural beginnings.

It took 13 years for Bud to finally receive his first promotion in the department, finally being placed in the detective bureau.  When asked why, he said that he felt himself a very independent thinker who marched to the tune of a different drummer.  He once described himself as a dichotomy in action.  In November 1984 Bud won election as Riverside County Marshal (one of two in the county).  Bud was praised for reorganizing the marshal’s function, bringing a sense of stability to the department and generating greater revenue by the office.  Bud felt he brought professionalism to the office, including promoting women and minority employees.  He held that position until 2000 when California eliminated the Marshal’s office with the Sheriff’s Department assuming its duties.  As the last elected county Marshal, Bud was made a Deputy Chief of the Sheriff’s Department.  He retired from that position before 2003.  He and Jan made their home in Fayetteville, Arkansas after his retirement.

Bud was a man of strong convictions and a devout Christian.  Writing was a passion he found during his days in the sheriff’s department and pursued in retirement.  He published two pamphlets of his poetry in the 1980s and joined a writers’ association in Arkansas after he retired where his work earned him the admiration of other associates.  Three books by Bud were, Skipping Stones Anthology,  First Kill and The Hope of Christmas.  Writing is a way of getting away, Bud said.

Some may have found Bud rebellious, but he found purpose in all his endeavors and always sought to bring fairness and a sense of right to everything he pursued.  He is survived by his son Hardin Hanks IV (Hap) and two daughters, Lisa Gibson and Ayjai Anzaldi, eleven grandchildren, fifteen great-grandchildren and a brother Richard (Lanny) Hanks.

A memorial service will be held at 10:00 AM Saturday, March 1, 2025 at Genesis Church in Fayetteville.

Cremation arrangements by Beard’s Funeral Chapel.