Bill Harrison
William T. Harrison, MD
Age 91
Bill Harrison was born on Sept. 22, 1920 at the Eastside Hotel in Electra, TX. He was an only child and lived in Electra for 18 years. His father was a chemist who worked in a refinery. His grandfather had a real estate business in Fort Worth, but later moved to Electra and bought the Eastside Hotel. In high school, Bill played on the basketball team, played the trumpet and was a drum major in the band.
Bill tells one amusing story about his 84-year-old great-grandfather visiting from Missouri when he was was 6. His great-grandfather claimed that he cured his shingles by catching a black cat in a cemetery at midnight, cutting off its tail and applying the blood to the shingles lesions. Bill later suggested this cure as a (whimsical) option to his patients with shingles.
Bill went to the University of Texas in Austin and participated in the Plan II honors program. He followed a pre-med program and graduated in 1942. He then started medical school at Baylor and entered the Navy. His medical school class had 100 students, including 2 women. After one year, the med school moved from Waco to Houston, where Bill finished his program in 1945. During his stay in Houston, Bill met and married his first wife, Marie Angel, who was studying nursing at Methodist Hospital. She was one of ten children from a farming family. He then did an internship in Youngstown, OH, and residencies at the VA hospital in Temple, TX, Vanderbilt Univ. Hospital in Nashville and the VA hospital in Houston.
Bill practiced internal medicine in Houston from 1951 until he retired in 1991. He also taught at Baylor College of Medicine. He was a pioneer in recognizing the importance of the mind in the healing process and successfully used hypnosis to treat veterans with trauma-induced disabilities. He and Marie had two children: a son, William, Jr. who lives in Houston, and a daughter, Cynthia (Cindy) Tirado who lives in Mexico City. In 1980, at age 60, Bill started running marathons and completed 21 by 1989. He ran the New York City marathon 7 times and competed in Boston and Honolulu as well. Bill's wife died of cancer in 1986 after 43 years of marriage.
After Marie died, Bill became closer to June Holly, who he had met at St. Marks Episcopal Church in the 1950s. She and her children were patients. She divorced her husband, who was alcoholic and had personality problems. With June's inspiration, Bill got very interested in Buddhism, especially the teachings of compassion and love. He started meditating and, in 1989, while meditating at the Japanese Garden in Portland, OR, he overcame his feelings of guilt about the death of his wife. This cleared the way for him to marry June on October 24, 1990. He and June joined the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM) headed by Lawrence Freeman and became very active in leading meditation groups in Houston and elsewhere. They participated in meditation retreats in the US and Italy and had many significant experiences, including a breakthrough in forgiveness with the Dalai Lama in Belfast. They also did meditation outreach to the homeless in Houston. He and June started a group called "Re-wed Retreads" that continues to meet every month. June died about 2 years ago.
Bill has had a long affiliation with St. Marks Episcopal Church, where he has been a Sunday School teacher, a vestry member and a Lay Eucharist Minister. He continues to lead meditation groups at St. Marks and at his residence, Holly Hall. In addition to his own children, he is also close to June's three children: Doug, James and Melissa. Bill enjoys reading books about meditation and Buddhist practice. Other than a bad case of shingles, he has had no serious illnesses until recently, when he had a malignant growth removed from his gum. It was diagnosed as melanoma, but subsequent tests indicate that it has not metastasized. Bill expressed one disappointment about not having any visitors from his church since June died.
Postscript: Bill died in August, 2012
