Hekkinan, Harold

From Spearfish Lake Tales Wiki

Harold Hekkinan was raised in Spearfish Lake and was a member of the football team with Bud Ellsberg, Frank Matson and Harry Masterfield that lost only one game in three years (1956-1958). After graduating, he went to Vietnam as a lieutenant in the First Cavalry Division, but returned wounded. He still draws 20% disability.

Harold's wife is named Martha. She was a known member of the Spearfish Lake Women's Club. The couple had daughters that went to college and got married. They had three grandchildren by 1989 with another on the way.^AF33

Harold taught Political Science and coached football at the Spearfish Lake High School for 20 years before being promoted. As Principal of the High School in 1997, he initially mishandled the fight that got Jason Bailey expelled, until Brenda Hodunk did her investigation for the newspaper.^AC06

He went to Vietnam in 1990 with the Tovo Expedition in Absent Friend. He caught a bit of the archaeology bug when Rod Matson was teaching the expedition what to look for, so spent a number of summers working for Rod as a digger.

When in the fall of 2000, Harold needs a new Basketball coach, one that hasn't been tainted by the prior Title IX lawsuit, as well as a Math and Science teacher, he neatly solves a problem with Brandy Wine's free time.