Kelsie Harder Obituary

[Fred Shapiro]

The death of Kelsie Harder may be of interest to ADS-L'ers.

Fred Shapiro


Kelsie B. Harder, 84, Potsdam. A funeral mass for Dr. Kelsie Brown
Harder, 84, of Potsdam, will be held on Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 2:00
p.m. at the St. Mary's Church in Potsdam with Rev. Garry Giroux and Rev.
Raymond Moreau co-officiating. Mr. Harder passed away on Monday, April
9, 2007 at his home under the care of his family and Hospice and
Palliative Care of the St. Lawrence Valley.

Friends may call at the Garner Funeral Home in Potsdam on Wednesday,
April 11, 2007 from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m.

Mr. Harder is survived by his wife, Louise of Potsdam; four sons, Kelsie
Terry of Reno, NV, Gerald William of Hanford, CA.,Denis Prince of
Norwood and Frank Maron, Hammond; two daughters, Anne Leslie Bedell of
Newton, NJ, and Marcia Louise Harder of Washington, DC; one sister,
Elsie Carrie Boyd of Linden TN;and 11 grandchildren.

Mr. Harder was predeceased by his parents, one son, Thomas Brown Harder,
and one brother, Elvis Earl Harder.

He was born August 23, 1922 on a large farm in Pope, Tennessee, the son
of Prince William and Ollie Belle MaGee Harder and grandson of the
Confederate Captain William Henry Harder. Mr. Harder graduated from
Cedar Creek Junior High School in 1937 and Perry County High School in
1939 and from Dickinson Business Institute, Nashville, TN, that same
year. In 1942 Mr. Harder became employed with U.S. War Department,
Milan, TN. He was selected to attend the War Department Senior Clerk
School, Rock Island, Illinois and was then transferred to Sierra
Ordinance depot, Herlong, California as Chief Teletype Operator and
Director of the Message Center.

In 1944 he entered the U.S. Army at the Presidio of Monterey,
California, and was stationed at Camp Abbot, Bend, Oregon and later at
North Fort Lewis, Tacoma, Washington. He was qualified as an expert
rifleman, personnel technician, and was discharged in 1946 as a
technical sergeant and sergeant major of the 73rd Engineer Replacement
Battalion, 11th Engineer Group, North Fort Lewis, Washington. He
received the Army Commendation Medal for his service. He returned to
Sierra Ordinance Depot as a cost accountant and then as acting
administrative assistant in the Post Engineers.

In 1947 he resigned from the War Department to attend Vanderbilt
University, Nashville. He received a Bachelor's Degree of Art's in 1950,
Magna Cum Laude, majoring in English, with minors in Philosophy and
Spanish. He received a graduated English Scholarship and continued on to
a Masters in Art's with and English major and a minor in History. He
spent his college summers as a self-employed timber contractor. In 1954
he received a Doctor of Philosophy Degree from the University of
Florida, majoring in English with a minor in linguistics. On the basis
of his academic achievement, he was invited to become member of Phi Beta
Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi, the two major honorary societies in the United
States. He was also elected to Eta Sigma Phi, the honorary fraternity in
the study of Greek and the Classics, and Sigma Delta Pi, the national
honorary Spanish society.

In 1954 he joined the faculty at Youngtown University as an assistant
professor and was promoted in 1960 to professor of English. He taught
courses in philosophy, English, humanities and business administration.
He began publishing academic articles while a student at the University
of Florida and continued to publish widely in American Speech,
literature, folklore dialect and onomastics (the study of name origin
and their linguistic background.). At Youngstown University he served as
Chair of the Honors Committee and taught in the honors seminar. He
founded and served as adviser of the literary magazine, co-founded he
Academic honors Society, and was active on many major committees. In
1984 he was invited to address the Youngstown University faculty and
honors students on the 25th anniversary of the founding of the honors
society. In 1961-62, he was president of the Ohio State Folklore3
Society; from 1959 to 1961, he was secretary-treasurer of the
Northeastern Ohio College English Group.

In 1962, he was awarded a Fullbright Lectureship to teach American
Literature and linguistics in India at the Universities of Punjab and
Kurukshetra. While in India he lectured for the United States
Information service throughout the country. Before returning to the
United States in 1963 they toured they went around the globe to Hong
Kong, Manila, Thailand, Singapore, Okinawa, Taiwan and Japan, where they
climbed Mount Fuji.

In 1955, the members of the Youngstown Chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon, a
national Social fraternity, invited him to be their counselor. He served
in this capacity until 1964, and then accepted an appointment as
governor of the New York District. In 2001, he was active in initiating
a chapter of the fraternity at Clarkson University in Potsdam, and
served as first chair of the Board of Governors for the fraternity.

In 1964 he accepted the position of Professor of English and Chair of
the English and Drama Department at SUNY Potsdam. He received the
Presidents Award for Scholarship and Creative Endeavor in 1994. In 1989,
he was promoted to SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor and was also
selected for the prestigious SUNY Best Faculty Fellowship Program which
also allowed him to visit and teach in the August Martin High School in
inner-city New York.

Soon after his arrival at Potsdam, his biography was listed in the Who's
Who in America and was later listed in several national and
international biographies. He held many academic positions, including
two separate terms on the advisory board of American Speech, Executive
Secretary-Treasurer and later President of the American Name Society,
Primary Reader for SUNY Awards Committee, Consultant on NDEA Program for
the United State Department of Education in Washington, Liaison officer
of New York Education English Institute, Director of the Place Name
Survey of the United States, Member of the Board of Directors of the
American Society of Geolinguistics, Editor of Names magazine, Member of
the Executive Committee of the International Linguistics Society, Chair
of the Usage Committee of the American Dialect Society, Consultant on
Dictionary of American Regional English and provided more than 6,000
entries. Consultant on the proper names in all editions of the Random
House Dictionary, and member of the International Committee on
Onomastics Sciences. In 1990, he gave the Keynote address at the Library
of Congress on the 100th anniversary of the U.S. Board on Geographic
names.

He was often invited by television and radio producers to comment on
some aspect of personal and geographic names. He appeared on CNN
television at the Trade Center in New York City, on Morning Exchange in
Cleveland, on WXYZ (Kelley & Co.), Detroit, and on numerous radio
programs.

In 1967 he attended and participated in the tenth International Congress
of Linguistics, Bucharest, Romania, reading a paper, "Linguistics and
American Onomastics," and chairing the international meeting on
onomastics. In 1972 he was awarded his second fullbright Professorship
to track American literature and linguistics at the university of Lodz,
Poland. His daughter Anne was born while in Poland. In 1978 he
participated in the 13th International Congress on Onomastic Sciences,
Jagallion University, Krakow, Poland, presenting a paper, "Onomastic
Devices in literature, with Emphasis on Works by Thomas Pyncheon."

Active in SUNY academic affairs, he was chair of the Faculty Assembly of
Potsdam College and was instituting a new general education program. He
also chaired the Conference of SUNY Campus Governance Leaders and later
became the first chair of the new Governance Committee of the SUNY
Senate. He also served on and chaired the SUNY evaluating committees.

He was active in community work, serving as president of the St.
Lawrence Historical Society when the Silas Wright House was purchased in
Canton. As a member of the Bicentennial Committee in 1976, he delivered
speeches and participated in flag presentations. As a member of St.
Mary's Church in Potsdam he twice chaired the religious education
committee; served as Lay Chair of the Pastoral Council; as lector, and
as Eucharistic minister. He chaired the Adult Education Committee, which
initiated the popular Sunday at ten program that featured outstanding
religious denominational leaders in the Potsdam community. He managed
several successful Little League teams while his sons were growing up
and was active in Boy Scouts at the time.

He was the author of approximately one thousand academic articles,
reviews, notes, poems, books, chapters in books and introductions into
books. His interests in language is seen in his contributions to "The
Dictionary of American Regional English" and Random House Dictionary".
Among his books are "Dictionary of Place Names: United States and
Canada", "Style and Meaning in the Works of Sir Thomas Urquhart", "John
Crowe Ransom: Poet, Economist, Critic", Baby Names", "Ultimate Name
Book", " Names and Their Varieties", and in collaberation "Claims to
Name: Toponyms of St. Lawrence County" and "Oxford Dictionary of
American Proverbs".

Besides his recognition as a distinguished teacher of literature and
linguistics , he was an outstanding teacher in writing, many of his
students becoming major writers, including T. Coraghessan Boyle, Jack
DeBellis, Frank Polite, Anthony Zappia, Mark Tursi, Peter Conners,
Anthony Leuzzi, and others. He was also active in modern literary
articles, including initiating the Star Lake Writing Workshops, which
attracted Krishna Vaid, James Dickey, Anais Nin, Paul engle, Vance
Bourjaily and other noted writers as participants. In 1995 he chaired
and directed the three-day conference on modern fiction held at SUNY
Potsdam in honor of T. Coraghessan Boyle, a leading American short Story
writer and novelist. The conference attracted leading literary figures
to the campus including George Plimpton and the great novelist John
Barth. His latest book "Place Names in Franklin County", will be
published in 2008.

After his retirement, he and his wife Louise traveled extensively,
including Turkey, the Scandinavian Countries, St. Petersburg, Spain,
Portugal , Morocco, China, Tibet, Fiji Islands, Bali, Australia and New
Zealand. Although he has several books, he was not a collector, but just
an avid reader. He was an eclectic person with interests in all
learning, but always claimed that his one hobby was the study and
teaching of language and literature.

Contributions in his memory can be made to a charity of ones choice.
Condolences may be sent to the family at www.garnerfh.com.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org