Robin Harris and her husband Gary Hasegawa were going to move out west. They had a wooded lot picked out in the mountains outside of Denver. The landscape and climate thrilled them, called them. But they did not go. Instead they remodeled their home in Chicago
They could not bring themselves to leave their families. Nor could they take their nine-year-old daughter away from a rich network of aunts, uncles, cousins, and adoring grandparents. Rachel is the only grandchild on the Hasegawa side of the family, so, as Robin says, “She gets treated like the Queen of Sheba.”
Robin was born into what she thinks was the largest Jewish family on the north shore of Chicago, ten sisters and brothers all told. Robin’s parents retired to Tucson, missed Chicago, came back and un-retired and are prosperous and happy.
Gary Hasegawa was born March 5, 1941. Six months later, his family, along with 110,000 other Japanese-Americans was interned. They lost their fruit farm and property in Puyallup, Washington and were sent to Minidoka, Idaho. There they, American citizens, remained imprisoned for three bleak years.
Robin Harris supported herself from the time she was eighteen, putting herself through college and law school. She was working as an attorney for a Fortune 500 company when she and Gary met.
Gary was trained as an industrial designer. He worked for a container company, where he amassed more than fifty patents, including one for the pop top found universally on soft drink and beer cans. When his company decided to transfer him, he took that as an opportunity to go into business for himself, a venture that Robin joined.
Robin and Gary, with active input from Rachel, are toy inventors. While Gary does much of the inventing and all of the prototyping, Robin handles the contractual side of the business and is studying design in order to become more active in that area.
Betty Fumi Hasegawa, Gary’s mother, is a powerhouse. Her strength during and after World War II helped her family survive a terrible ordeal. Betty was a leader in the Redress Movement for Japanese-Americans interned during the war and testified before congress. Today she is a skilled and dedicated maker of kites.
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