Harold J. Turner was born in 1893 in Darke County, Ohio. He began working for railroads during the summers in Greenville, Ohio. In 1913, he moved to the Pacific Northwest, and became a station helper and then a station agent for the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway (SP&S) in Camas, Washington. He was later appointed SP&S's general tax agent, and moved to Portland, Oregon. In 1934, he was named manager of the Oregon Railroad Association. In this position, he worked as the lobbyist for Union Pacific Railroad, Great Northern Railway, Southern Pacific Railroad, and SP&S in Oregon. He retired from the association in 1961. In 1963, he was the coordinator for Oregon Governor Mark Hatfield's Oregon Welcome Committee.

Turner's wife was Ruth E. Turner (1898-1968). The couple had four children; one son, Robert W. Turner, was killed in a plane crash while stationed in Germany in 1948. In November 1963, Harold J. Turner and Ruth E. Turner began an extended vacation, traveling in a motor home. During this vacation, on February 1, 1964, Harold J. Turner died in Fort Myers, Florida.

Sources: Articles in the Oregonian, May 19, 1948, and February 2, 1964; vital records on Ancestry.com.