In late September 1958, I entered the ninth grade in Washington Intermediate School in Honolulu, Hawaii. In addition to the usual courses – English, science, math, and social studies – I chose to take a typing class. I remember well my typing teacher, Mr. A. T. Leong, whom I found initially to be a rather severe drillmaster. However, I soon learned to appreciate his methods — diligent practice and constant repetition. It’s much like learning to play the piano. I ended up getting an “A” for the course.
Having taken the typing course turned out to be a wise choice for me. Because the following year, when I transferred to a private school called Punahou, a typing test was required of all newly entered students. If I remember correctly, we had to type at least 35 words per minute to pass the test. If we failed, we had to go back to typing class. I had no problem passing the test.
Little did I know, when I began my typing class with Mr. Leong, that I had a close relative who had for many years been Head of the Department of Stenography and Typewriting at Columbia University in New York City. He had also published a number of course books on typewriting over a period of 25 years. Maybe he and I shared a typing gene. The relative was William Ernest Harned (1883-1958), my father’s first cousin. He had died only two months before I began my typing class. However, I do not remember my father ever mentioning him. In fact, they might not have known each other very well and seemed not to be aware that they lived in New York City at the same time for a decade or so.
William Earnest Harned was born on November 11, 1883 in Grand Junction, Iowa. He was the firstborn of eight children to Charles Joseph Harned (1858-1910/20?) and the former Emma Marie Zellhoefer (1864-1929). Charles is the oldest brother of my paternal grandfather, Francis John Harned (1863-1934). (This biography of William is derived from my book, Unsung But Not Forgotten; Family Personalities With Surnames Bassett, Beutler, Bogdon, Charles, Green, Harned, Lane, Morgan, Phelps, Phipps.
William graduated from high school in Des Moines, Iowa. He got a B.A. degree in 1907 from Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. For a short while, he attended Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, as a medical student, but he did not complete the program.
After leaving medical school, he moved to New York City. He worked for several years there as a commercial/legal stenographer and secretary. He also taught stenography and typing at several local branches of the YMCA.
In July 1911, he received an appointment at Columbia University to teach stenography and typing. He began teaching during the summer sessions but then expanded to the Extension Teaching Program (in 1947, renamed the School of General Studies). Within a few years, he was chosen Head of the Department of Stenography and Typewriting, which later became the Department of Secretarial Studies, which he also chaired.
William Ernest Harned, 1883-1958
First cousin, once removed
“Stenography and Typing Expert”
William Ernest Harned – graduation from Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa, 1907
William Ernest Harned – at Columbia University
In 1918, he married Florence McColm, born in Muscatine, Iowa, on March 2, 1884. William and Florence lived in New York City at 875 West 181 st Street, a large apartment building built in 1917 and today still occupied. In 1929, he received an M.A. degree from Columbia University’s Teachers College.
875 West 181st Street, New York City
During World War II, William was active in a program of secretarial studies for government workers. The Brooklyn Eagle, June 20, 1943 (page 8) said:
COLUMBIA TO TRAIN WAR WORK STUDENTS
Courses Will Include Various Occupations.
Office workers for war industries, government agencies and the armed forces will be trained in an accelerated course of secretarial studies at Columbia University Summer Session opening July 6, according to an announcement, by William E. Harned, department representative.
All programs of secretarial studies have been planned to meet the need for such office workers. Short intensive courses will be offered to equip individuals for such occupational services as typists, stenographers, Spanish stenographers, secretaries, machine shorthand writers, and operators of various office machines.
Under the newly planned course of study, it will be possible for a secretarial student to accomplish as much during the Summer Session as is normally accomplished in a longer term, according to Mr. Harned.
In addition to William’s teaching and departmental administrative work at Columbia University, he made a major publishing contribution to the literature of the teaching of typing. He began publishing his “how-to” manuals in the early 1920s and continued with them into the late 1940s. The following is a title page from one of his 1930 publications and a listing of his publications over the years:
