Lehi Free Press publisher Sally Francom interviewed James Harrison, who is one of Lehi’s newest city councilors. His family, upbringing, work with the Foreign Service, and views about his role on the city council were all discussed.

Sally Francom (LFP): James, tell us a little bit about your youth and upbringing. Where did you grow up? Share a little about your educational background, and then talk about your family.

James Harrison: I grew up in Roy, Utah, up in Weber County, just west of Ogden in Riverdale. I lived there from about age five until I graduated from high school. I was the youngest sibling of five. I was the unplanned child for my parents and was 11 years younger than my next oldest sibling. So, I had the benefit of being like an only child, but also the youngest. So, my parents were very relaxed.

LFP: You probably got a lot of good attention.

Harrison: I didn’t really take advantage of it, because I was a pretty good kid and very much a rule follower. I played sports–baseball, basketball and football for the most part. And then in high school, actually, in junior high, in eighth grade, 9/11 happened, and that was very significant for me in my life. I knew at that point I wanted to serve in the military or do something to serve.

LFP: Had any of your relatives or parents served in the military?

Harrison: Yes. All of my grandfathers and great-grandfathers served in the military. My dad served in the Army during the Vietnam era. Luckily, he wasn’t required to deploy to Vietnam, but he was an army captain. I’m the only one in my generation who joined the military. So, when I was 17, I was planning on going to ROTC or West Point– I kind of wanted to just get my foot in the door. So, I joined the Marines, in the delayed entry program, and my parents gave permission, and so I exercised and kind of just worked with the unit in Roy, and then I was accepted to West Point, BYU and George Washington. Those are the three that I applied to and was accepted.

LFP: Which did you choose after high school?

Harrison: I went to West Point as a freshman, and then I went on my mission to Taiwan. While I was in Taiwan, I learned Mandarin. I decided I still want to serve in the military, but I really wanted to go into diplomacy. So, when I got back from my mission, I went to BYU, joined ROTC, got an internship with the State Department and then, once I graduated, went into the Army Reserves, and then took a full-time position in the State Department, and that’s when we moved to Washington, DC.

LFP: When you were at BYU, what was your actual major?

Harrison: My major was Chinese, so I kept up my Chinese language, and then I minored in military science as part of my ROTC degree.

LFP: With the ROTC program, do they require that you spend some time in government service?

Harrison: No. In ROTC, cadets will either go into active duty right out of school or go into the National Guard or Reserve. And since I already had an internship and had a foot in the door with the State Department, I knew that I would be in the reserves, which is one weekend a month and a couple of weeks in the summer. And luckily, because it’s the federal government working with the military, it’s very easy. So, if I had to miss a training, they’re easy to work with.

LFP: So, during your time at BYU, you got married?

Harrison: I did, shortly after my mission. I met my wife in high school. We’re in the same grade, but she was clearly out of my league, and so I never even bothered asking her out on a date at the time. Once I got back from my mission, Facebook was a thing. I noticed she was single, and I reached out, and in classic Utah fashion, we started dating and got married pretty quickly.

LFP: She went to Roy High, too? So, you two have a lot of commonalities that way.

Harrison: Yes, we have the same circle of friends. We knew each other’s background. When we started dating, she was going to Weber State, and I was at BYU, and to avoid the 90-minute travel, we got married on December 23 between semesters, and then she moved down and started UVU.

LFP: What was your first job with the Department of State?

Harrison: Initially, I interned at the Department of State between semesters at BYU in the summer. Once I graduated, I went to Washington, D.C., and worked in the State Department as a trainee. I covered China, geopolitical issues and politics, some counterterrorism and some Africa issues, which was very interesting.

LFP: Were you doing special projects within the State Department, or were you in a certain department doing specific work?

Harrison: I was at “Main State,” and you’re mainly communicating with the embassies abroad, and communicating policy back and forth from the ambassador and his political officers and the embassies. And so, I did that for a little while, and then entered into the Foreign Service. So, after about three and a half years, I went overseas as a Foreign Service officer.

LFP: Your whole family went with you, I assume. Where was your first assignment?

Harrison: It was in Beijing. We were in Beijing for two years, and our youngest daughter was born during that time. My wife came back to Utah and had the baby. I came back for a few weeks, and then she moved back to China with the baby. Then we moved to Tokyo for about three and a half years.

LFP: So, your first assignment was in Beijing, and your second assignment was in Tokyo. So, your Chinese didn’t help you there.

Harrison: It didn’t as much, although the kanji, but the characters in Japanese, are similar to Chinese. Yeah, the Japanese language is very much adopting different languages and putting them together.

LFP: How good are you with kanji? In Chinese, kanji. Are you fluent in writing?

Harrison: In Chinese, my writing is probably the weakest part, because I never really needed to write, but my comprehension and speaking are much better just being a missionary. It’s all about speaking. And I can read, of course. I’ve managed to keep that up. Right now, it’s a little bit rusty.

LFP: When you were in Japan, was your role there similar to your work in Beijing?

Harrison: Yes, I was working as a political officer at the Tokyo embassy, and then about two and a half years into that assignment, I was assigned to Pakistan. That was a year-long assignment, but I had to leave my family in Tokyo, just because you couldn’t bring your family to Pakistan. It was a little too dangerous. I spent a year there. I arrived in Pakistan about two weeks before Afghanistan fell. It was a very dramatic time between Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the US. So, I spent about six months during that time in that area.

LFP: Were you staying at the embassy during that time in Islamabad?

Harrison: I was there at the embassy. I had a house outside of the embassy compound, but it was secure, and had a guard, and during the second half of that assignment, I was in Karachi, Pakistan, so opposite and further south, and served at the U.S. consulate there for the last six months.

LFP: How often would you see your family during that year?

Harrison: I think I had two trips back to Tokyo during that assignment.

LFP: How many kids did you have at that point?

Harrison: Three.

LFP: So, wow. Your wife’s a rock star.

Harrison: She is. She is the rock of the home, and she was very patient with all of my traveling and work duties. But she loved Tokyo. The kids loved Tokyo.

LFP: Where did you go after Pakistan?

Harrison: We came back to Utah. We were planning a hiatus here, and our next assignment was going to be in Europe. But in that short period of time after I moved back here, I had a former colleague who works at a Utah startup company called Strider Technologies, and he said, ‘Hey, just come in and meet the team.’ And so, I went over there and very quickly ended up joining Strider. So, I left government altogether.

LFP: When you moved back to Utah, was that to Lehi?

Harrison: It was. My parents lived in Lehi. I co-owned a house with them over in the Dry Creek area. When we’d come back on vacation or home leave, we always came back to Lehi. W...

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