At age 82, Jim Harris still drives his car to work at Baker Harris Hopkins Insurance nearly every day unless he is riding on a tractor at the farm.
Anyone who visits his office will notice his hobbies and interests. Pictures of his wife Peggy, his daughters Renee, Leslie, and Paige along with his grandchildren line the walls.
Memorabilia from Oklahoma State University serves as reminders of his involvement in football and basketball as both a Cowboy player starting in 1958 and leading to his being a lifelong fan. Jim’s love of “the game” steered him into coaching men and women’s basketball and football starting in 1966. His ladies’ volleyball team produced two State Championship titles at Kremlin-Hillsdale High School.
After establishing an insurance business in 1978, he has served his clients while also volunteering at KHS as an assistant to several head football coaches. He enjoys watching young men mature and succeed in the ‘’greatest game ever.” He took pride in countless hours of mowing and grooming the football field and says, “It needs to be grass, not weeds. I notice!”
A “Semper Fi” logo hangs in his office and illustrates his pride in serving his country as a Marine. In 1963 He graduated from Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Virginia. While stationed there, he traveled up and down the East coast playing basketball, but that fun ended when he was sent to Vietnam for a year to protect a MASH unit.
Jim is often found exercising at the YMCA, and for years he was a regular player with the noon basketball group. That led him to travel across the United States and Canada with the Oklahoma Senior Olympics basketball team. For over two decades, he graduated from one age bracket to the next. After a broken foot in Houston and a “small” heart attack in Minneapolis, he retired from competition, but he has never lost his desire to be his best.
Pictures of his dogs on point speak of his passion for quail hunting with friends during the winter months. He says that watching his dogs work a field brings him true joy for the sport.
Jim still enjoys boating and water sports and is happy that he can still ski at his age. He awaits every lake season to see if he is good to go for one more year. Jim often states, “When you think of me, I hope you don’t think of insurance, but when you think of insurance, I hope you think of me.” He expects to remain active and “stay in the business of working with people” for a long time. Jim Harris is a true “Local Legend”
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