Thanks All!  So here's more detail.  The home page design was completed.  I still think H1 has some reasonable value and it didn't have one so I told him to put a keyword rich H1 in.  He felt it disrupted the existing design and executed it as above.  So....I thought I would seek "convergent validity" on the subject as a next step.

I have a developer that wants to use style="text-indent:-9999px" to make the H1 non-visible to the user.  Being the conservative person I am, I've never tried this before and worry that Search Engines may think this is a form of cloaking.  Am I worrying about nothing?  And apologies if it's already been covered here.  I couldn't find it.  Thanks in advance!!!!

Thanks All!  So here's more detail.  The home page design was completed.  I still think H1 has some reasonable value and it didn't have one so I told him to put a keyword rich H1 in.  He felt it disrupted the existing design and executed it as above.  So....I thought I would seek "convergent validity" on the subject as a next step.