Dr. Harris Hinderaker

Dr. Harris Hinderaker, age 96, of Willmar, died peacefully Thursday morning, August 25, at Bethesda Pleasant View Nursing Home.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, September 2, at Vinje Lutheran Church in Willmar. Visitation will be 5-7 p.m. Thursday, September 1, at Peterson Brothers Funeral Home in Willmar and will continue one hour prior to the service at the church on Friday. A private interment will be held at a later date at Fairview Cemetery in Willmar. Memorials are preferred to Vinje Lutheran Church.

Harris was born November 19, 1919, in Astoria, South Dakota, to Hoseas and Dagny (Paulson) Hinderaker. Despite the hardships of the Depression, he enjoyed his rural upbringing as the oldest boy within a six member sibling set. He graduated from Astoria High School in 1937 and from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD in 1941 with a degree in chemistry.

After working as a chemist for the DuPont Company, he enlisted in the Navy and served in the South Pacific during World War II as an "aerologist" (meteorologist).

Upon returning from the war, he used the "G.I. Bill" to attend medical school. He attended the University of South Dakota in Vermillion for two years and graduated from Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois.

He met Margaret Joan Georg during his internship at Ancker Hospital in St. Paul, MN. After their marriage in June 1950, they moved to Bird Island, MN, where he established his first practice. He joined the Willmar Clinic in 1959 and practiced there as a family physician until his retirement in 1986. Upon his death, he was the oldest founding physician of ACMC. He is recalled to have been the first RPAP preceptor in Willmar, teaching third years medical students beginning in 1971. He considered it a great honor and privilege to have cared for multiple generations of patients in the west central Minnesota area.

Harris was a past president of ACMC, and served on the Willmar Public School Board and the Willmar Opportunities Board. He served on the first Minnesota State Board of Lutheran Social Services in 1962, and was an active member of Vinje Lutheran Church in Willmar for more than 55 years.

He enjoyed raising Appaloosa horses at Skat Ranch north of Willmar. He remained a member of the Austin F. Hanscom American Legion Post 167 until his death. He maintained an alert mind and played a "wicked bridge game" into advanced age, even when afflicted by macular degeneration/visual loss.

Harris is survived by his wife, Joan; his four children: Margaret "Peggy" Johnson, M.D. of Willmar, George Hinderaker of Willmar, Steven (and Penny) Hinderaker of Minneapolis, and Mary Hinderaker Jacobson of Willmar; three grandchildren, Peter (and Rachel) Sherman Johnson of Storm Lake, IA, Rachel Hinderaker of Minneapolis, and Mollie Hinderaker of Minneapolis; one brother, Irving Hinderaker of Watertown, SD; and other relatives and friends.

He was preceded in death by his parents and four siblings.

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