NOVEMBER 2017 12 | FRONTDOORSMEDIA .COM Sharon Harper called her childhood in a small southern Minnesota town “idyllic”. Those years were framed by a strong relationship with her parents and siblings. “It was very foundational for everything I am today,” she said. “My parents were amazing, extremely entrepreneurial, persistent, hard working and had high ideals, and they instilled that in all the children. I feel like everything goes back to that for me. They had a big interest in community involvement and political involvement. My father was on City Council, and ran for some other offices as well. We were all engaged in helping out as children. I really developed an admiration for people who step out into the public sector.” While Sharon’s start was in a small town, Ollie got his near the big city, growing up in Yonkers, New York and attending high school and undergraduate college in New York City. “My mom and dad were very active in the community,” Ollie said. “My mom was like a community organizer, before there was such a thing — she would get going on issues of consequence for people who live there. My dad was a lawyer for a group that was trying to bust up a corrupt union — he had that spirit about him. “He ran a congressional candidate’s campaign in the 1950s, which gave me a view of what politics and public service were like,” Ollie said. “We were all very community spirited, giving people.” Ollie’s father passed away when he was just 12, but he persevered, and made his way to Creighton University in Omaha to attend medical school. It was there COVER STORY CONTINUED

NOVEMBER 2017 FRONTDOORSMEDIA .COM | 13 where he met a young journalism major named Sharon, and also where they both encountered some of the philosophies and beliefs that would shape their lives. “The concept they teach of being ‘Men for Others’ has been a big part of our lives, and consequently it has been for our children as well,” Sharon said. After graduating, they moved to the Valley in 1971 to begin their adventure together — with one rather significant side trip right off the bat. In 1973, the Harpers traveled to Kenya for a year, where Ollie practiced medicine in some extraordinary conditions and Sharon pitched in by helping vaccinate the local population. “It was part of my grand plan,” Ollie said. “I wanted to do that after I became a doctor, and see what it was like practicing in a third — almost fourth — world country. It was very fulfilling and I enjoyed it very much. Sharon immunized practically half the tribal “Hold Other Human Beings in Awe and Reverence” “One experience I had in college was transformational for me. We had a young Jesuit teacher, Father Phalen, who was a wonderful teacher of philosophy. He was great. And the way he ran his class was, he would kneel for the prayer with his back to the door at the beginning of class, and once he stood up, if you weren’t through the door he would close the door and not let you in. So everybody was there on time because he was so good. “Father Phalen gave this course on Plato, and he said to the class, ‘I want this to stick with you forever’ — talking to the class — ‘You should hold other human beings in awe and have reverence for them. That stuck with me — awe and reverence for human beings, no matter who they are.” — Ollie Harper