MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of the Tom Fennessy/Mike Harden Back-to-School Project is to provide
backpacks and needed school supplies to disadvantaged children, ages
kindergarten through high school, without regard to race or religion.
The ultimate goal of this project is to allow these children the opportunity
to enter school on an equal basis with their peers and help increase
their self-esteem.
Photo courtesy of The Columbus Dispatch.MIKE HARDEN Mike Harden joined The Columbus Dispatch in 1983. In his column, “In Essence,” he often wrote about his lean upbringing on the West Side, humor, the poor, the sick and the put-upon. Mike was born on Aug. 8, 1946, in Columbus. He was one of six children. The family moved to West Jefferson, where Mike graduated in 1964 from West Jefferson High School. He worked at the Westinghouse plant before enlisting in the Navy in December 1965, serving as a medical corpsman in Vietnam with the Navy and the Marines. He was in a triage unit that treated battlefield casualties. In 1975, Mike and his first wife, Suzanne, adopted a 5-month-old girl from an orphanage in what was then South Vietnam. His daughter, Annie, was featured in many of his columns. He returned in 1998 to Vietnam in search of Annie’s mother. He was unable to find her. Upon his return from the military, Mike enrolled at Ohio State University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1973. He worked as a writer and editor for the Ohio Historical Society from 1975 to 1978. 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. Many Dispatch readers may remember Mike’s 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. Mike was always on the search for a good story. He loved getting on the road covering a hurricane or cruising Rt. 66 for column material. People opened up to him because they sensed his genuine interest. He was widely respected in the newsroom for both his writing knowledge and willingness to share it. Every summer he looked forward to talking to writing interns. He told those students “they were the industry’s future and challenged them to do journalism with passion or otherwise go sell insurance.” Mike wrote about music and played music. You may remember his frequent columns on the worst country song titles. While at the Citizen-Journal, he joined a band of guitar-playing journalists who called themselves the Pink Flamingos. He 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. In 2006, he went to Mississippi to cook for work crews cleaning up after Hurricane Katrina. He won the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists for that and other efforts in 2007. After his semiretirement, Mike continued to write two columns a week. In his last column, written a few days before he died on Oct. 13, 2010, Mike found humor in a sign at the medical center. “I have, for example, found amusement in the stunningly macabre house rule bumper-stickered to the wall that reminds those with business dying at the James (cancer hospital): ‘Checkout time is 11:00 a.m.’” Mike’s family included his wife, Debra; daughter, Annie; sons Eric and Aaron; stepdaughter, Jen, and six grandchildren. |
Photo courtesy of The Columbus Dispatch TOM FENNESSY Tom Fennessy was born in Springfield, Ohio, on Dec. 20, 1937. He graduated in 1955 from Catholic Central High School and in 1961 from Ohio State University, where he majored in mathematics. Fenn, as he was affectionately known around the newsroom, came to The Columbus Dispatch in 1966, following a stint with the defunct Columbus Star. He worked on the copy desk and as a general assignment reporter. For a while he was The Dispatch’s science writer, a beat that took him to Cape Canaveral to cover a space flight to the moon. Most will remember him for his column “On Second Thought,” which ran four days a week in The Dispatch’s Accent section. His last column appeared on Sept. 29, 1982, only days before he died on Oct. 7. It was in “On Second Thought” that his one-of-a-kind journalism style shone. He was a collector of odd facts and an observer, and he had a style all his own. He connected with readers. Whether he was talking about spring cleaning, public officials or coping with winter weather, he had a touch about him that readers liked. Many may remember his “Freeze-dried Man” column. Before he joined The Dispatch, Fenn put his mathematics major to good use at jobs with North American Aviation (now Rockwell International), the Ohio Department of Health and OSU’s Bureau of Educational Research, where he worked as a statistician. At The Dispatch he was the go-to man to check percentages and figure the odds. The son of a railroader, Fenn had a fondness for trains his whole life. At one time, he worked for the old New York Central Railroad. The Clintonville resident was devoted to his wife, Patricia, and proud of his children – Siobhan and Patrick. Colleagues and friends described Fenn as shy, kind, generous, thoughtful and a good listener. He was something special to everyone. Fenn was a sports fan with a fondness for the Cincinnati Reds, and a car buff. He enjoyed Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, country and bluegrass music, and cigarettes. In his last column, he wrote about the three-packs-a-day habit that resulted in his lung cancer. “I discovered I smoked cigarettes too long. A couple of years too long, at least. “Like so many smokers, I always assumed that the words on the latter-day packages – ‘Warning: The Surgeon General has determined that cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health’ – certainly didn’t mean my health. “I was wrong. They did.” |
Board of Directors Terri Leist, President John McNeely, Vice President Karen Kirk, Secretary Cathy Spurbeck, Treasurer Betty Kletrovets, Board Member (Past President) Debra Harden, Board Member Karen Krouse, Board Member Mary Garrick, Board Member Pam Coffman, Board Member Annie Horton, Board Member Sharon Stanley, Board Member
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