A second chance

Fargo man, 91, finishes writing book a year after suffering a heart attack

By Carol Stender

Harold “Hal” Hase of Fargo wrote a book at 90. He had actually started it a few years before, but, when he suffered a heart attack, he was spurred to complete the book, “Wartime Soul Sisters: Anne Frank and Audrey Hepburn.” It’s not the first time he has authored a piece. Hase wrote for his college newspaper and book reviews for the Bismarck Tribune. He also authored “Who You Are: A Personality Primer.” The former clinical psychologist is now 91 and plans to write another book soon. 

Harold “Hal” Hase of Fargo felt he was given a second chance last year at age 90, prompting him to finish something he’d started a few years prior – a book.

Hase suffered a heart attack a year ago while having lunch with his son, Ryan. A trip to the hospital resulted in surgery to install a pacemaker.

“I felt I had been given a second chance at life,” he said. “I thought perhaps I was supposed to finish the book.” 

And he did. Wartime Soul Sisters: Anne Frank and Audrey Hepburn was published on Amazon last July.

Hase, a clinical psychologist, has always been an avid reader with a knack for writing. He wrote for his college’s newspaper. During his years working at a Bismarck hospital, Hase wrote book reviews for the Bismarck Tribune. 

The idea for his Hepburn-Frank book came as he neared retirement. His wife Gerrie’s friend asked what he would be doing in retirement. It spurred him into writing a book.

He was, at the time, reading books about celebrities like Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, and Audrey Hepburn, he said. Hase had always been fond of Hepburn and one quote in a book he read about the actress struck a chord. Hepburn was asked about her war experience when growing up in The Netherlands.

Hepburn had secretly aided the Dutch Resistance during World War II. She was a teenager and helped refugees, hid Allied pilots, and performed ballet for fundraisers. She was hesitant to talk about it.

In the book, however, she mentioned reading Anne Frank’s diary. She felt they were soul sisters because both had gone through many of the same experiences.

“That stuck in my head,” he said. “I got to visualizing it in my mind.”

He started writing and completed a play, Two Tulips in Holland: The Wartime Lives of Audrey Hepburn and Anne Frank.

Hase first sent it to a ballet studio where Hepburn had studied as a teen-age girl. He converted it to a book and rewrote it a dozen times before his final product was formatted and ready for print.

“I still wouldn’t say it’s a work of art,” Hase said, but he has a sense of completion to the project and feels a connection to their story.

He grew up in Mankato during World War II. His experience is very different from Hepburn and Frank as he lived in the U.S. and not an occupied country. But he remembers the war efforts, the scrap metal drives, ration stamps, war bond drives, and the newspaper stories about the war.

“When we got the news of the atomic bomb, people were happy not because of how the Japanese people were affected, but because the war had ended,” he said.

During his senior year, the Korean War was underway. Hase and several of his friends decided to enlist in the service instead of being drafted. If they enlisted, there was a good chance they would not go overseas.

“We didn’t relish that thought of going to Korea,” he said.

Some of his friends went into the Navy and others enlisted in the Army. Hase and a friend joined the Air Force. He was 17.

Hase was stationed at Lackland AFB in Texas and Keesler AFB in Mississippi. He was trained as a radar and radio operator. Most of the communication was made using Morse Code. He was also transferred to the Strategic Air Command survival training school north of Reno, NV. And then he was sent to Korea.

“I enlisted so I wouldn’t go to Korea and then they sent me there,” he said.

By the time Hase got to Korea, the Korean Armistice Agreement had been signed. For six months he served 20 miles south of the DMZ.

When he left Korea, he was stationed in Iowa and then to Minot before an AFB was located near that North Dakota city.

Some of the published works by Hal Hase, including his most recent book, Wartime Soul Sisters: Anne Frank and Audrey Hepburn. Photo by Carol Stender

Because of his military service, he was able to use the GI Bill. He probably would not have been able to afford college without it, he said.

Hase had two main interests – technology and philosophy. While he loved philosophy, he didn’t know how it could become a career. He chose, instead, to major in psychology and minor in math at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. And he also studied German, he said.

“I was so eager to go to school,” he said. “I wanted to study everything. My advisor had to cool me down and set me straight.”

To help cover his costs, he worked as a janitor in the school. It was a busy job especially when the high school basketball tournaments took place at the college.

Hase also worked at the local TV station working as a stage hand. The big paying jobs at the station were the engineers and directors. He made $1-an-hour. He also did phone sales and inventory for Gillette to cover costs.

Once he’d completed his undergraduate studies, he needed to find a graduate school. California and Washington were too big, he said. Hase chose the University of Oregon for his post grad studies.

It was a grind, he said. But he was fortunate to work with grants and fellowships with the Oregon Research institute. He worked on his dissertation and, after four years at Eugene, went to Vancouver VA Hospital for his clinical intrusion. His mentor became well known for his personality tests and assessments. Together they published his dissertation findings in the prestigious Psychological Bulletin.

“I liked research but not the grant business,” he said. He chose a clinical career path and, for his first job, worked in Bismarck at the North Dakota Children’s Psychiatric Clinic as a psychologist. He later worked at the Bismarck Hospital and the Q & R Clinic, which later became MedCenter One.

While in Bismarck, he met Gerrie who was a professor at the Bismarck State College, which is a polytechnic institution.

“That was the luckiest day of my life – the day she agreed to marry me,” Hase said.

The two moved to Fargo around 2020 to be near their two sons and grandchildren.

He wasn’t done working, though. He continued to work part-time for the Social Security Administration investigating psychological disability claims. He did figure it was “time to hang it up,” when he turned 88, he said. He recently penned, Who You Are: A Personality Primer.

Hase hasn’t let age limit his zest for life and learning. Now, at 91, he has plans to write one more book. He claims it will be his last. I wouldn’t be too sure.