Kevin Lee Harder

Kevin Lee Harder, 72, born on July 6, 1950, in Davenport, IA, United States, passed away from pancreatic cancer on August 14, 2022. He resided in Palm Springs, CA at the time of his passing. Arrangements are under the direction of Forest Lawn, Cathedral City, California.

As a young man Kevin his friend Julie and her mother in an abandoned house in Salt Lake City.
They survived on the tips they made which had a
profound impact on his life. No matter how little money he had he always would tip
generously and he continued this tradition throughout his life.
He had and incredible love of Disco and was always at his happiest while DJing. He would
spend hours a week DJing or recording sets for friends and workout classes. Vacations
consisted of trips to San Francisco combing through the DJ record outlets looking for new
music. He was an incredible dancer and spend most weekends on the dance floor in pure
bliss.
He worked in the trucking industry for most of his career starting as a rate clerk and then
working his way up. His last trucking line moved headquarters from Salt Lake City to San
Francisco. He managed the data center migration, installation and operations. The company
closed its doors not long after the move. He transitioned to the Banking industry working
with technology.  This led to working at Charles Schwab, a job he truly loved. 
In his later life Kevin actually won the lottery, and was again extremely generous with many
people, he donated tons of money to several organizations near to his heart and was even
given an honorary degree from the University of Santa Barbara for his charity to their music
program. His philanthropy changed the life of countless people. Kevin had a huge impact
on everyone he met, his strength, kindness and generosity had no limits. He loved to make
people happy and he succeeded greatly at this. He had an uncanny wit about him, a great
knowledge of so many things, in fact no one to this day could beat him at Trivial Pursuit! He
was extremely superstitious and was a huge dreamer in life.
In 2013 Kevin met the love of his life Jason and spent most of their time dining, traveling
and making each other truly happy, but most of all they kept each other laughing. They
never went a day without saying I love you, in fact they did this at random moments several
times a day. Kevin and Jason had an uncanny connection with each other, their combined
life experiences made them a great match, knowing the end of one another sentences,
relating to things that almost no one would know and having a bond that was unbreakable.
Kevin used to break out in tears every time he saw Jason on stage with the Palm Springs
Gay Men's Chorus and was always so very proud. Their favorite movie was the live action
version of "Beauty and the Beast" and he watched it nearly every day for weeks until his
passing.

His Favorite saying was " Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened". Dr. Suess

Kevin is survived by his loving husband Jason, his lifelong friend Bill, and his brother Steven,
among many other friends that he has touched. A celebration of life will be held on Sunday the 25th
of September at the Cascade Lounge located inside the Agua Caliente Casino at 401 E. Amado Rd.
Palm Springs, CA 92262 from 11am to 1pm. Call 562-900-0897 if you have any questions.