Nell Harden
October 9, 1924 ~ August 15, 2017
Resided in:
Asheville, NC
Asheville Butterfly Trail
Nell Harden was born in Rome, Georgia to the late William and Helen McLin Harden on October 9, 1924. She died on August 15, 2017, just short of her 93rd birthday.
Her family moved from Rome, Georgia, to Gastonia, North Carolina in 1929, when Nell was only five years old. She would later describe the experience of her family as a transition from Georgia “Crackers” to North Carolina “Tar Heels.” In 1937 the family moved from Gastonia to Salisbury, where she came to trust Christ for her salvation under the ministry of Dr. Charles Woodbridge of the First Presbyterian Church in Salisbury.
Nell was educated in local schools. She graduated from Catawba College in 1945. She also attended Columbia Bible College, and received a Master of Arts degree from Duke University (Class of 1952). Her master’s thesis was on “Moral Elements in Defoe.”
Her career in teaching included public schools in Mocksville, North Carolina, and Martinsville, Virginia. She returned to Salisbury to care for her ailing parents while teaching English at Catawba College. In 1969 she moved to Asheville where she taught English at the Ben Lippen School until she retired in 1987, and moved to the Givens Estates to spend her remaining years. There she was known for playing the autoharp for the worship and entertainment of the patrons there, and for her volunteer work “to help gladden the lives of older people and seek to point them to Jesus Christ.”
She had one brother, Charles, who died in 1979. She is survived by Charles’s widow, Edna, of Beverly Hills, Florida, and three nephews and their wives-Charles and Barbara Harden of Helena, Georgia; J.Blair and Aimee Harden of Milford, Massachusetts; and John and Jean Harden of Farmington, Connecticut.
Also surviving are three great nieces; Ryan H. Lewis of San Francisco, California; Petra H. Vicknair of Longwood, Florida; and Katie Harden of Farmington, Connecticut.
Nell was a lifelong Presbyterian, a member of the Weaverville Presbyterian Church until her retirement when she joined the Arden Presbyterian Church.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday September 9, 2017 at Givens Estates Pulliam Chapel (2360 Sweeten Creek Road, Asheville, NC 28803) at 2:00 PM with Reverend Ken Crabb officiating.
In lieu of flowers, it is requested that memorial gifts be made to the Four Seasons Hospice organization (373 Biltmore Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801) in appreciation for their services to Nell in her declining days, or to the Ben Lippen School (7401 Monticello Road, Columbia, South Carolina, 29203) where she taught English to 19 generations of students.
Life is hard’ was Miss Harden’s clarion message to us High School students at Ben Lippen. English was the subject, but Life is really what she taught. It seemed such an odd declaration to 14-18 year-olds on the cusp of life. But it was memorable and it stuck. And it’s true. Counter-balanced, of course, by the grace of Christ which overwhelms all sin, the consequences of all sin, and the guilt of all sin. God blessed Nell Harden w/ the clarity and vision to make these adult truths known well to adolescents who already knew everything there was to know about life (except comma splices!). She learned these truths and knew we needed to learn them, too. Thank you Nell Hardin for your faithful service to God and for what and how you taught us. Life is indeed hard. And God is indeed Good…all the time. See you again one day.
When I think of Miss Harden, I think of her most frequent quote (already shared in this guest book), but I also think of a loving individual with high standards. I learned what a comma splice, sentence fragment, and run on sentence were under her tutelage, but I also learned that my love of reading was something which could be used for more than pleasure, and this set me on the path I would follow for many years as an English professor at our mutual alma mater, CBC, where I worked before moving into directing a nonprofit that seeks to share the love of God where Christ is least known.
I am thankful for the formative influence Miss Harden had on my career, and for the testimony she gave, consistently, for years that life is hard, and God is good. I am thankful for those who helped ease her passing from this life of hardship into the eternal life she trusted Christ for, many years ago.
<3 Miss Harden!
Ms Harden will be missed by so many of her students. She was tough, strict and had high standards but she would give of her time to help anyone that wanted it and would often help her students achieve more than what they thought was possible.
Well said, those who have commented before. Oops, did I end that sentence with a preposition? I, too, will be forever grateful for Miss Harden. She gave me a couple of the worst (or worse?) grades I’ve ever gotten–dern comma splices–but she apparently got through. At least with some things. I remember ‘ English is a good language’ & her coming to class with a surgical mask so as not to contaminate us. I’m very thankful that I ‘happened upon’ Givens Estates last year on my way to a writers conference. On my way back from another one a few months later, I stopped for a visit & to give her part of the manuscript for a book I’m writing. She, of course, gets the credit. And to God be the glory for the life that she shared with us. We love you, Miss Harden!
As a teacher she was without a doubt the hardest I had, but also without a doubt the best I ever had also. And when I went back to work at BL she was a great co worker and person to be with. Please don’t count the spelling and grammar error I made in this short message.
In my life a few teachers have had a real impact and Ms Harden was one of them. Tough and demanding excellence wrapped in a love for her students. She will always be remembered.
Nell Harden taught us English with such authentic personal grace that it was impossible for me to consider her subjects, LITERATURE, 5th-grade grammar and coherent writing as anything other than important.
With many others, I owe Miss Harden the great debt of discovering in high school the weight of words and the impossibility of careful thought without careful language.
Thank you, Miss Harden, for your unfailing example of personal and professional grace.
I owe Miss Harden so much for being such a great English teacher. I have been writing since graduating college in 1986. I often sent Miss Harden copies of manuscripts I wrote for publication in nursing journals. She was always quick to reply with her edits and suggestions. She kept and returned many of our high school papers when she came to BL reunions for the Class of 82. I grew to love the lady in high school and enjoyed my visits with her at Givens Estates on several occasions in the last 25 years. Rest in peace dear lady! Jesus will enjoy your auto harp and your ability to keep the power of proper grammar and English alive!
My heartfelt condolences to the family during this time of sorrow. Please find peace in knowing that our Heavenly Father understands your grief and He cares. 1 Peter 5:6, 7
It is in love and grateful appreciation for the life of Nell Harden. She was my teacher at Catawba College and later my friend.
My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. Ms. Harden was an incredible teacher.
My condolences to the family. Those we hold closest to our hearts leave us with memories to treasure. May the kindness she had shared and the love she brought into your hearts strengthen you. May the Almighty God (Psalms 83:18) bring lasting comfort and peace to the family during this difficult time.
Miss Harden inspired me as my English teacher at Ben Lipped School, Asheville, NC in 1969/1970. I respected her for her seriousness, mastery of content and care for her students. I am thankful for the way she impacted her students for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Headstrong.’ Miss Harden was kind when she called me this. She was tough, and never shrank from the absolute truth. I felt diminutive in her presence, but then she did that which I never ever would have expected, not in a million, billion lifetimes. She named me the 1984 winner of the Nell Harden Scholarship.
I was floored, and spent many years with absolutely no idea what she had seen in me. When someone tough as nails and as uncompromising in standards as her says that you have potential, you best not argue! It eventually settled within my mind that I could be more than I was at the time, and that I could also be more than I am today! I have potential to be anything! There is simply nothing that I cannot achieve with God behind me!
I will always give credit to Miss Nell Hardin for all that I have accomplished, and all that my future holds!
What I love about Miss Harden is that she was real and authentic: she didn’t try to be anyone else but herself. I enjoy remembering some of her quirks, eccentricities — even some of the interactions she had with us students. Like so many others who have commented here, I have to say she was tough… she was no softie, but at the same time there was a love, an affection that came through which was endearing. She truly was one of the seminal influencers of my life as an 11th- and 12th-grader — one of the reasons I’ve been an English teacher for 20-some years. I’ll always appreciate — and smile at — the memory of her being part of my life as an English teacher at Ben Lippen. God bless you, Miss Harden… God bless your memory!
Her love for Christ and her commitment to serve Him through the skills that He gave her were evident to all who knew her. We’ll all have many fond memories of Miss H. She’s now rejoicing in His immediate presence!
Miss Harden’s love for God and her dedication to us BL students were abundantly evident. She was that old-fashioned teacher who positively drilled those grammar rules into our minds. She told us, ‘A verb to be never, never takes a direct object’; she warned against using a comma with ‘two main clauses not joined by a coordinate conjunction–‘and,’ ‘but,’ ‘or,’ ‘nor,’ ‘for,’ or ‘yet.” She was a strict grader with her ‘angry red marks,’ and students could fail an entire ten-point quiz or even a test on *Pilgrim’s Progress* with a mere slip-up of a sentence fragment or comma splice.
We memorized the first fourteen lines of Chaucer’s *Canterbury Tales* in Middle English–still firmly embedded in my mind. She taught me to love the richness of the English language, the logic of grammar, and the function of each part of speech. It was Miss Harden who inspired a lifelong appreciation for Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories. Without Miss Harden’s dedication I would likely not have been doing serious writing and editing, and I made a habit of sending to her any published book of mine to her, inscribed with a word of gratitude to her for her influence in my life. What a splendid foundation she gave to us all! How she loved us and desired our success!
Now she is no longer with us, but we look forward to being reunited with her when our time comes. May we be found faithful to God’s calling upon each of our lives just as Miss Harden was.