How can I completely erase the iMac Hard Disk without the password?

I inherited an iMac running OS 10.9.5. I want to completely erase the Mac Hard Disk. I know the Administrator's name but not his password. He is deceased. I think I reset the password but don't know to inform the Keychain or accomplish the erasure. How is this done?

Unless the iMac does not have a Recovery HD, you should be able to restart into Recovery Mode (Command+R) and use Disk Utility to erase the Macintosh HD. You don't need any password. Or are you saying the drive is encrypted (Filevault 2) and you need a userID/password to unlock/decrypt it?
If you want to reinstall OS X Mavericks, you may need your Apple ID/password assuming you downloaded it when it was available from the Mac App Store. Otherwise, depending on the model you might be able to use Internet Recovery (Command+Opton+R) to reinstall OS X Lion or above which ever the machine shipped with then upgrade from there. Or if it came with Snow Leopard or below you will need the install DVDs.

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How can I completely erase the iMac Hard Disk without the password?

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