Three mornings a week, Elwood Hart drove to grocery stores and collected day-old breads, cakes and pastries. He'd haul them to the Salvation Army in Lawrenceville, where the goods were distributed to the needy.
For that, Mr. Hart was known about town as the "Bread Man."
He did far more than deliver bread for the Salvation Army, though. He rang the Army's charity bell during the holidays, just as he'd done when he lived in New York and Canada. He made donations, too.
"He would spend his own money to buy food to fill up the food pantry," said Patricia Arguello, the facility's director of core operations. "That man has fed thousands of families over the years. He believed in the Salvation Army mission."
Mr. Hart was recovering from a stroke when he died Sunday at Gwinnett Medical Center. He was 85. A memorial will be held at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the Salvation Army in Lawrenceville. Tom M. Wages Funeral Service LLC, is in charge of arrangements.
Mr. Hart was born in Brighton, Ontario, Canada, in 1924. He grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, during the Great Depression. There, a Salvation Army center was next to the family's home, something he talked about in a 2008 column that appeared in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"Maybe it was a bowl of soup or a bologna sandwich, but I got something to eat," he said at the time. "If it weren't for that, I don't think we could have ever made it. We weren't living in the United States, but the situation was the same all over."
Mr. Hart served with the Canadian Army in Normandy during World War II. After the war, he joined the U.S. Army, where he saw tours of duty in Korea and Vietnam. He retired in 1967 as a master sergeant with 28 years of service.
After the military, the brass collector worked for 20 years in various roles for Kodak in Rochester, N.Y. In 2001, he and Margaret, his wife of 42 years, moved to metro Atlanta for the weather and to be near family.
Soon, he immersed himself in volunteerism. When poor health prevented it, he still wished that he could, said a son, Michael Hart of Winder.
"He was very unselfish," he said. "He got joy in helping out."
Mr. Hart was a fixture as a volunteer at the Gwinnett Veterans Memorial Museum, located in the historic courthouse in downtown Lawrenceville. There, some of his military memorabilia was on display alongside other vet exhibits.
"He loved when the kids came in to tour the museum," said Paul Pickard, a retired Air Force veteran who oversees the gallery. "He loved the museum and was there all the time. He had a wonderful spirit."
Survivors other than his wife and son include another son, Patrick Hart of Elmira, N.Y.; four brothers, Joseph Hart, Albert Hart, Roy Hart and Gerald Hart, all of Rochester, N.Y.; two sisters, Eva Massey and Doris Brown, both of Rochester, N.Y.; and three grandsons.
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