The Worthington Schools convocation was filled with memorable moments on Monday morning. Worthington teachers who gathered at Thomas Worthington High School heard speaker after speaker talk of the importance and excellence of Worthington education.

But when Herndon P. Harding, M.D., addressing the crowd from his wheelchair, led them in an impromptu rendition of "God Bless America," many were visibly moved.

Harding was assisted by his niece, Carolyn, but needed no help singing.

When he attended Worthington High School in the 1940s, he sang in four operettas, as well as being an athlete, along with his brother, George T. Harding IV, M.D.

George graduated in 1946, Herndon in 1948.

"Graduating from Worthington High School was one of the most exciting days of my life," Herndon said on Monday.

He reminded the crowd to try to relish each day and to smile at their students.

"They need to know they can be happy as they grow older," he said.

George Harding could not attend Monday's ceremony honoring the winners of the Worthington Schools Distinguished Alumni Awards. Daughter Carolyn accepted his award.

Herndon P. Harding attended LaSierra College for his undergraduate work and graduated from Loma Linda University Medical School in 1957.

He completed his internship at Ohio State University Hospital and his residency in Worthington in p

sychiatry.

Herndon joined the United States Public Health Service as a service obligation, caring for Coast Guardsmen who needed mental health care. One of his major assignments was to interview all individuals seeking Peace Corps assignments.

After 36 months, he was given the post of assistant medical director at the Public Health Hospital in Lexington, Ky.

Upon returning to Harding Hospital, which his grandfather had established in Worthington in 1919, Herndon used the knowledge he gained at Lexington to establish an addiction program for men and women of all ages and all types of addiction.

During his 35 years of practice at Harding Hospital, he served as staff psychiatrist, director of addiction services, director of residency training, and later associate medical director. In his practice, he worked with the senior population and also taught medical students at the Ohio State University Medical School for over 30 years, where he held the appointment of assistant professor of psychiatry.

He served as the president of the Central Ohio Psychiatric Society and president of the Medical Forum of Central Ohio.

His three children all graduated from Worthington High School. Herndon and his wife, Belinda, reside on a farm in Centerburg, Ohio, and work with as many as 30 children per week who have special needs from a variety of handicaps, using specially trained horses in their therapy.

George T. Harding IV graduated from La Sierra University in 1949 and received his M.D. from Loma Linda University in 1953.

He continued his postgraduate psychiatric education at Ohio State and Harding Hospital. George served as a psychiatrist in the U.S. Army Medical Corps from 1955-57.

He joined his father, uncles, brother and nephew in the operation of Harding Hospital. He served as director of residency training from 1962-1981 and was president and medical director from 1973-1994, further developing the integration of spirituality and religion within the bio-psycho-social-spiritual approach to psychiatric treatment.

He was a founding member of the Franklin County Mental Health and Retardation Board, the first in Ohio, and an ongoing advocate for mental health and the mentally ill. He served as president of the Ohio Psychiatric Association and was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the board of regents, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

George has been a clinical professor of psychiatry at Ohio State since 1975 and a professor of psychiatry at Loma Linda University in California since 2004. He negotiated the merger of OSU/Harding in 1998, which integrated the operations of Harding Hospital into the OSU Medical Center.

He has written numerous scientific papers and publications.

He and his wife, Joan, have five daughters, all of whom attended Worthington High School. They currently maintain residences both in Worthington and California.

Caption: By Jeff Mills/ThisWeek
Herndon P. Harding, M.D., a 1948 Worthington schools graduate, speaks after receiving a distinguished alumni award. He was joined onstage by his niece, Carolyn, who was there to accept an award for her father, George Harding IV, a 1946 Worthington schools graduate.