Obituary of Herbert Spencer Harned

CHAPEL HILL Dr Herbert Spencer Harned Jr died on January 7, 2013 at UNC Medical Center. Dr Harned was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 1, 1921 and moved to New Haven, Connecticut in 1928. He was the son of Herbert S. Harned, a professor of physical chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University and of Dorothy Elizabeth Foltz who have predeceased him. He attended private and public schools in the New Haven area and the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, where he graduated in 1942. He attended Yale Medical School, graduating in 1945. After interning at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, he entered active military service as a general medical officer in the Army, serving at Wright Patterson Field in Dayton, Kelly Field in San Antonio, and at the Murphy General Hospital in Waltham, Massachusetts. He achieved the rank of captain. Inspired by pediatric professors Grover Powers at Yale, Edwards Park at Hopkins and Charles Janeway at Boston Children's where he completed his residency, he decided on a career in academic medicine. He returned to Yale to subspecialize in pediatric cardiology and became a junior faculty member there until 1958. While stationed at Wright Patterson Field, he met Jean Mary Goldfuss, (his wife to be) at Antioch College nearby. Their courtship continued when she was placed in an Antioch coop job at Time Inc in New York City and he was stationed in Waltham. They were married in 1947. The excitement of becoming involved in a new four year medical school lured Dr Harned to move to Chapel Hill in 1958, where he assumed the role of the Chief of the Pediatric Cardiology Division which he maintained for 28 years. During his medical lifetime, he saw the development of the field of diagnostic and interventional cardiology as it involved children, the near demise of the scourge of rheumatic fever, the development of surgery for complex cardiac conditions and the creation of intensive care for newborns and children. Concurrent with these changes, the medical programs at the University of North Carolina grew from those of a modest medical center to the large treatment and research multiplex of today. The Department of Pediatrics is proud of the many excellent pediatricians trained over these years to serve the State and the nation. Dr Harned is survived by his wife of 66 years, his sons, Richard of Columbus, Ohio, Douglas of Cary and Thomas of Durham; and six grandchildren. A sister, Eleanor, also of Carolina Meadows in Chapel Hill, survives. Two sisters, Julia Pardee and Louise Harned predeceased their brother. Dr. Harned's research concentrated on peri-natal physiology of lambs, generating 40 articles and book chapters. He was the primary author of the book Pediatric Pulmonary Heart Disease (Little Brown) and one of the contributing editors of the book From Infancy to Maturity which chronicled the "Growth and Development" of the Department of Pediatrics at UNC. He was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha (Medical Honorary Society), Sigma Xi, The American Pediatric Society, The Society for Pediatric Research, The American Academy of Pediatrics, and the NC Medical Society. He served for five years on the American Heart Association's research committee that evaluated all the research projects submitted relating to children's heart disorders. Dr. Harned prized his family relationships and those of professional and other friends in the community. He was a shade gardener, an enthusiastic spectator of college sports, a reader, and writer of short stories. He and his wife were active members of the Community Church of Chapel Hill, Unitarian-Universalist and in the Carolina Meadows Community. Online condolences may be made on www.walkersfuneralservice.com