He saw the extraordinary in everyday people and the absurdity in what others took for granted.
He had deep empathy for the poor, the sick and the put-upon.
He loved to get on the road, whether to cover a hurricane or cruise Rt. 66 in search of stories.
Mike Harden, whose columns have been appearing in The Dispatch since 1983, died last night at Ohio State University Medical Center after a battle with cancer. He was 64.
"He had the gift," said former Dispatch editor Luke Feck, who hired Harden. "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, turning his own illness into black humor.
In his last column (published Sunday), he wrote about keeping himself occupied during long hours 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.' "
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