John Alan Bard

John Alan Bard, a proud Navy veteran formerly of Fort Loudon, late of Mechanicsburg, died Tuesday morning, September 10, 2024, at Brookdale Grandon Farms. He was 74. 

He was born November 30, 1949, in Greensburg, Westmoreland County, PA, son of the late John F. and Mary (Ream) Bard. Alan served in the Vietnam War, enlisting in the U.S. Navy on November 25, 1969, and becoming Yeoman to the Chaplain and Captain aboard the USS Little Rock before his honorable discharge on September 1, 1971. He went on to serve in the U.S. Army Reserves.

Alan worked in health care as a registered pulmonary function technologist and respiratory therapist at the Chambersburg Hospital. He was of the Methodist faith and in his free time, enjoyed hunting, fishing and ham radio.

Alan is survived by his wife of twenty-eight years, Iris C. (Schultz) Bard; his son, Jason Alan Bard of Chambersburg; his sister, Jane Bard-Lawson of Latrobe; two nephews Ron Lawson III and wife Jackie, and John Lawson; great niece, Sarah Lawson; great nephew, Caleb Lawson, great-great niece Jamie Brooks; and his first wife Debbie (Burns) Bard; Iris’s brother Victor Schultz of South Portland, Maine, as well as long-time family friend, Melissa Libertini.

The family thanks Brookdale Grandon Farms for giving Alan the dignity and respect he deserved during his last days. The family is also grateful to Heather and Chaplain Kristen of Amedisys Hospice for showing him kindness and love.

Alan is remembered as a good man of few words but immense wisdom, with a heart of gold and a smile that could light up a room. For all his years in the health field, his yeoman service aboard the Little Rock, a Cold War flagship of the Navy's 2nd and 6th Fleets, never left him.

When one of his dearest friends visited him near the end, his final word to her that day came with a smile: “Dismissed.”

So, we say, Yeoman, dismissed. We have the watch. May you have fair winds and following seas.