Wednesday, October 13, 2010 10:15 PM
By Joe Blundo
The Columbus Dispatch
Mike Harden, whose columns have been appearing in The Dispatch since 1983, died tonight after a battle with cancer. He was 64.
"He had the gift," said former Dispatch editor Luke Feck. "He had that unique skill to make the complex understandable, to see the funny side of the follies of people."
In recent years, Harden had semiretired. Even then, he was still writing two columns a week.
Harden wrote often and honestly about his lean upbringing on the West Side. The family eventually moved to West Jefferson, where Harden graduated in 1964 from West Jefferson High School. He worked at the Westinghouse plant on W. Broad Street, then in December 1965 enlisted in the Navy. He served as a medical corpsman in Vietnam with the Navy and the Marines.
Harden later enrolled at Ohio State University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1973. From 1975 to 1978, he worked as a writer and editor for the Ohio Historical Society. He also worked as an associate editor for Ohio magazine, as a contributing editor at Columbus Monthly and as a speechwriter at Nationwide Insurance Cos. before becoming a columnist for the Columbus Citizen-Journal in 1981.
Two years later, he was hired by The Dispatch.
Harden's column ranged widely, from humor and human-interest to profiles. He created an alter ego, Aunt Gracie, who commented on the idiosyncrasies of life from her fictional perch in the southern Ohio town of Methane. The character was so vivid, a few readers thought she was real.
Throughout his career, Harden won many statewide and national awards, including honors from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the Associated Press. Collections of his columns were published as books, and he also wrote Fight for Life, the story of a Columbus-area father's successful battle to get an epilepsy drug legalized so his daughter could take it.
Inside the newsroom, he was widely respected, both for his writing knowledge and his generosity in sharing it.
"He was a throwback, a traditional newsman who understood that he was the eyes and ears of his readers," said Dispatch Editor Ben Marrison. "His passing is a great loss to our newspaper and the community."
Harden is survived by his wife, Debra; daughter Annie; sons Erik and Aaron; stepdaughter Jen; and six grandchildren. Funeral services are pending.
jblundo@dispatch.com
No comments:
Post a Comment