Walter Harding - Legacy

Legacy

In addition to the research collection that bears his name, Harding's impact on Thoreau scholarship and SUNY Geneseo is registered in several ways. Harding's wife, Marjorie Brook Harding, endowed an annual lecture at SUNY Geneseo that bears his name. Each fall, the Walter Harding Lecture brings a distinguished scholar of American literature related to Thoreau and his circle of transcentalists to the campus. In 2009, Mrs. Harding increased the annual lecture's endowment. Geneseo's English Department holds meetings, special events, and lectures in the Walter Harding Room of Welles Hall, and the department annually awards the Walter Harding American Studies Award to a graduating senior in the American studies program. After his death, a book of essays was published in his memory: Thoreau Among Others: Essays In Honor of Walter Harding.