Dr. Bill Harden: A Life’s Investment In His Daughters

Dr. Bill Harden and wife, Clara, are carrying on traditions by staying very active in their grandchildren’s lives. Pictured here with granddaughter, Mina.

Working on six continents?

Raising killer bees?

Becoming a family physician at 35?

All of these could give Dr. Bill Harden a reason to boast, but there is something far more important on his resume — investing his life into the lives of his three daughters.

If you know Dr. Bill Harden of Redding Family Medical Group and his wife, Clara, you know about their three daughters. Sandy, Janel and Rachel are their priceless treasures and all three have followed their dad into the medical field.

Sandy is a labor and delivery nurse who teaches at Azusa Pacific. Janel is an emergency room nurse in Southern California and Rachel practices family medicine alongside both her husband, Tollin, and her dad.

Time, time and more time

So what is the secret to raising three courageous, intelligent daughters? Time, time and more time. For Rachel that meant attending medical school classes with her dad when she was only five years old. She was reading War and Peace not long after.

We may have to back up a bit more to find out what really makes this unique family tick. Bill’s childhood might sound anything but exciting, growing up in Orland as the son of a school principal. This quiet childhood, however, may have been the perfect launching pad for a life that I like to compare to Forrest Gump. After graduating Cal Poly with his bachelors degree in biology, Bill hit the ground running. Among other things, he spent a year insulating the South Pole station in Antartica, a year building houses in Guatemala and time on a crab boat in Alaska.

Finding his future wife, then working together with killer bees

Bill’s most pivotal stop on the globe would certainly be at age 24 when he became a  Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay. While teaching farming practices there, Bill adopted his Christian faith and also found his future wife, Clara, who came from a large, local farming family. Bill and Clara’s relationship was very interesting from the start as they worked with killer bees and taught the locals how to raise them for honey.

Clara caused quite a buzz when she came back to Orland with Bill and she continues to keep everyone on their toes. After moving back to California, Bill and Clara, and their growing family, spent five years in Indio where Bill served as a farm adviser. Soon Bill felt the call to be a doctor and began his studies at the University of Irvine. Entering medical school with three small daughters, and three jobs, was no easy task, and Bill credits Clara with helping him every step of the way.

Finding their identity in faith and family

Bill’s identity is certainly not as a physician — and watch out if you ever call Clara a doctor’s wife! Both Bill and Clara find their identity in their faith and their family. Even as school and jobs kept them busy, family time was the priority. They read together, ate at the dinner table together, prayed together, travelled the world together and always helped with the girls’ homework.

This solid foundation encouraged bravery and independence in the girls. Traveling with their parents soon turned into independent travel and later Sandy and Janel even completed some of their studies at the University of Oxford in England.

Bill and Clara continue to lead a weekly Spanish Bible study and they travel to Paraguay frequently. Bill recently completed a mission trip in Nigeria and looks forward to going again soon.

An investment that will never stop giving

None of these accomplishments would have any meaning if Bill and Clara had failed to use them in their daughters’ lives. The couple took their life experiences, worldly goods and the sacrifice of their own time to invest in each daughter. That is an investment that will never stop giving and they caution others to not miss the fleeting chance to pour similar investments into their own children’s lives.