Wilbert “Bill” Hansen was an exception to the rule about many successful fruit industry people being born and raised in the Midwest, because Hansen grew up right in the Yakima Valley on a small hardscrabble farm near Harrah, Washington. Everyone in the family, including Bill, worked hard to make ends meet. Following graduation from Wapato High School in 1931, Hansen decided to enlist in the Navy. On the way up the courthouse steps to the enlistment office in Yakima, Hansen met his high school principal. Asked why he was going into the courthouse, Hansen replied that he was enlisting in […]