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Author Topic: Len Harding  (Read 1357 times)

Offline Mark Gerber

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Len Harding
« on: November 14, 2022, 07:59:53 PM »
I am sad to report that Dick Carville just called from Mass. to let me know that Len Harding passed away yesterday. He was 86.  Len was one of my best friends in control line and otherwise too.  Although not an active flier for many years, he attended every contest and flying session he could and was known to almost every flier in the Northeast. He assembled an amazing collection of control line kits, motors, etc. He loved to work on motors and help other fliers in any way he could.  When I joined the New England Stunt Team (NEST) club in the '80s, I got a call from Rick Campbell inviting me to come over to Lenny's house (he lived about 15 minutes away).  Lenny and I became life-long friends. Every time we talked on the phone Lenny would ask me if I needed anything.  He gave me Veco wheels, a Veco spinner and an ST .46 for my first T-Bird.  After I moved to Colorado, we continued to talk on the phone every month or two and got together at VSC, Brodak's and whenever I made a trip back to the Boston area.  Among Lenny's closest friends was Dick Wolsey.  Below is a picture of Lenny enjoying himself at Brodak's while Dick takes his afternoon snooze.  May he rest in peace in a lawn chair beside the control line circle in heaven.

Mark Gerber


Online Bob Hunt

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Re: Len Harding
« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2022, 06:45:51 AM »
This is sad news indeed. I remember Len as a fun loving, kind and very considerate man. He will be missed here, but Dick Wolsey has - as Mark pointed out - been waiting upstairs at the CL circles for his old friend for a few years. I'll bet they're flying up a storm...

Godspeed Len - Bob

Offline Lyle Spiegel

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Re: Len Harding
« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2022, 07:22:30 AM »
very sorry to hear this news. He was a wonderful man. I got to know him whenever I was attending a NEST activity.
We will all miss Len.
Lyle Spiegel AMA 19775

Offline Ara Dedekian

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Re: Len Harding
« Reply #3 on: November 15, 2022, 08:38:08 AM »


       Sad to hear of Len's passing. I knew Len mostly in his inactive years, hanging out with him at weekly flying sessions, contests and talking on the phone. Len had a retail auto parts business and after retirement would help sell off model estates on his own time, no commissions. A dyed in the wool salesman, I'd occasionally get calls from him trying to get me to buy. I went to his home years ago after one of those calls. He had items from a deceased modeler neatly arranged in his garage/workshop as if he was selling auto parts. I made the mistake of bringing my wife. Len had a sense of humor. Up to the last time I saw him, he would comment on thinking she was my daughter, and my wife, to this day, gives me tons of grief on why my shop can't be as clean and organized as Len's. I have a prized, new in box Glow Bee fire plug from that visit.

     Len kept his engines after disposing of his planes and other items and spent his time refurbishing them. He'd call looking for parts to complete a rebuild. On one of those trips to deliver the parts, I came home with a fully loaded Sig display box of balsa. Fully loaded, except for Stunt size and density balsa. It was useless to him ("Get that out of my house!" I'm sure.) but a treasure trove for free flight scale builds.  Every time I dipped into it for a free flight build, I'd call and tell him the box 'o' wood bailed me out again. 

     I walk by that box every day and am reminded of Len. A great guy!

     Ara

Offline peabody

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Re: Len Harding
« Reply #4 on: November 15, 2022, 11:40:38 AM »
A terrific guy all around!
The World needs more Len's!

Offline Rick Campbell

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Re: Len Harding
« Reply #5 on: November 15, 2022, 12:30:45 PM »
I met Lenny Harding in the late 1980s. To say that he had a profound influence on my life would be a huge understatement.

I had gotten back into CL Stunt after a long layoff and was dismayed to see that almost none of the kits I remembered from my youth were still available. I decided to set about finding and collecting these kits. My focus was very narrow: Only full size, full fuselage, flapped competition-type designs. I placed a classified ad in the back of Flying Models magazine. The VERY FIRST call I received was from a guy just 45 minutes north of my apartment in Massachusetts . . . Lenny Harding.

I drove up to meet him and bought several kits from him. Our association did not end there. We stayed in touch and he would often buy up kits and other CL stuff that I didn’t take. Lenny got back into flying and competing and we stayed friends for nearly 35 years.

When I was at career crossroads, Lenny, a long time small business owner,  suggested I try going into business for myself. Because of his suggestion, I ended up operating a very successful ice cream parlor for 29 years. He also told me of the advantages of owning the real estate one’s small business occupies. When a property became available across the street from my shop, I bought it, rehabbed it and moved the shop. This property has now funded my retirement.

My life would be VERY different had I not been so fortunate to have met and befriended Lenny Harding. I’ll miss him terribly and think of him every time I pick up a handle.


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