WINDHAM – William Stacey Harkins, 46, of Windham, died Sunday, Oct. 29, at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, after a long and courageous battle with pulmonary heart disease.

He was born in Lewiston on May 19, 1960, the son of Robert W. and Eda A. Harkins. He grew up in Poland and graduated from Edward Little High School in Auburn. He was an avid athlete, excelling in tennis, baseball and golf. He attended the University of Maine in Farmington, and then went on to work for North Center Foods from 1983 to 1988, where he earned numerous awards including salesman of the year before his disease forced his retirement.

Throughout his medical struggle that eventually took his life, he was very active in supporting new research and technology in an effort to better his own life and those of others with similar challenges. He was very active in the life of his daughter, Lauren E. Harkins, and intensely committed to his surviving family, his parents of Bradenton, Fla.; sister, Kathy A. Gorham, and her husband, Frank, of Gray; brother, Robert J. Harkins, and his wife, Sally, of Paris, brother, Jeffery L. Harkins, and his wife, Neddy, of Bradenton, Fla.; six nieces and nephews, Heather Raftice, Heath Gorham, Abigail Vickery, Sawyer and Chase Harkins and Lisa James.