Charles E. Sawyer - President Harding's Death

President Harding's Death

Dr. Sawyer acted as the personal physician to Warren G. Harding and to Florence Harding as well. He never accepted payment from them for his services; in doing so he felt that he provided himself a level of protection in the event that either died while under his care. Sawyer diagnosed and successfully treated Mrs. Harding’s "floating kidney" condition, the first doctor to do so, and thus gained her loyalty.

Harding gave Sawyer the rank of Brigadier General in the Army Medical Corps.

Sawyer’s reliance on dated medical practices resulted in the misdiagnosis of the President’s coronary condition that led to the President’s death in San Francisco in 1923. Joel Boone, M.D., the Vice Admiral in the United States Naval Medical Corps, had diagnosed the condition while Harding was on tour in Alaska. Sawyer deferred to the attending physician; however, Harding insisted on finishing the trip. It has even been specuated that Sawyer's use of harsh purgatives was the cause of Harding's fatal heart attack. At Sawyer’s recommendation, Mrs. Harding did not have an autopsy performed.

Following the President’s death, Dr. Sawyer resigned his commission, and focused his attention on the formation of the Harding Memorial Association, to which the task of designing and building the Harding Memorial in Marion. Sawyer died within a month of the announcement that a location had been secured, which delayed completion of the marble memorial until December 1927. The memorial was dedicated in 1931 by President Herbert Hoover.

Dr. Sawyer’s practice and leadership within the Harding Memorial Association fell to his son, Dr. Carl Sawyer, who ruled both organizations with an iron fist until his death in the late 1960s. In the 1980s, the Harding Memorial and the Harding Home were transferred to the Ohio Historical Society.