Ron Harding: From Misfortune, New Life

When Ron Harding, a double amputee, was learning to walk again at the Rehabilitation Institute in Orange 12 years ago, he had no idea that one day he would serve on its board of directors.

But Harding also never expected to get a pilot’s license, own his own company or learn to love golf after the accident that took both his legs.

It happened on an icy Indiana Turnpike in 1978. Harding, a truck driver, was pulling a trailer to the East Coast when he swerved to avoid a car that was heading toward him on the wrong side of the road. His rig went into a ditch and landed on top of him.

A woman and two children in the car escaped serious injuries.

Although the accident and the moment he swerved changed the course of his life, Harding said that he could not have done otherwise.

“That truck is sitting up there real big--you can’t just take people out because they’re on the wrong side of the road.”

Harding spent four months recovering and relearning to use the leg muscles he had left below the knees. He also thought “maybe I’d drive again one day,” Harding said. But after discovering how difficult and expensive a specially equipped rig would be for a driver with artificial legs, Harding decided instead to start his own company.

Today, Ron Harding Moving Service Inc. in Anaheim has a fleet of 52 vehicles and employs 22 people full time and 35 part time. Its 100,000-square-foot warehouse, which he rents for $36,000 a month, stores property for about 30 commercial clients.

About a year ago, Harding, 49, sold the company to Mayflower Transit Agency, but he remains the controlling officer.

“In today’s marketplace, it’s enough to stay out there and keep what you got,” he said, sitting in his office surrounded by plaques and awards attesting to his drive.

It is his drive that forces him to remain as active now as he was before the accident, if not more so.

About 18 months ago, Harding got a private pilot’s license. And immediately after that, he said, he fell in love with golf--the hobby that consumes him most.

At first, he said, he had trouble coordinating his swing with his stiff artificial legs. But today he moves with more flexibility because of prostheses that have rotators at the knees.

“This is what they came up with,” Harding said, hoisting up his pant leg. “Now when I play golf, my feet don’t turn, but my rotators turn.”

Because of a rigorous schedule that also includes swimming and working with groups like the Boy Scouts and the Rehabilitation Institute, Harding says his artificial legs last him about two years--several years less than normal.

“I’m a helluva lot more active” than other people with artificial legs, he said, shrugging.