William Harrison Watkins Sr.

Engineer grew up on river houseboat

William Harrison Watkins Sr.
William Harrison Watkins Sr.

Don Asher learned his life's motto when he tangled his fishing line in debris as he and his father, William Harrison Watkins Sr., canoed down the Mississippi River in 1994.

The two put their canoe in at the headwaters of the river at Lake Itasca in Minnesota and headed downstream toward Minneapolis. At one point Asher, of Reno, Nev., snagged his line and was worried about cutting it and losing the lure.

Watkins, though, offered some advice that's stuck with Asher, a business writer and author of several books.

"If you're going to have fun, you're going to have to tear up a little gear," Watkins told him.

Asher cut the line and has used that phrase as his mantra for the past two decades.

Watkins, 83, of Maumelle, a retired engineer, died Wednesday at a Little Rock hospital after battling cancer.

He was born in Scotland, Ark., on April 23, 1932, and grew up on a "hardscrabble farm" before moving with his parents to live on a houseboat on the White River near Des Arc.

"The only things they bought were shoes and bullets," Asher said. "Otherwise, they grew it, built it or made it."

Watkins quit school in the seventh grade to help his father fish on the river.

When he was 14, he and a friend would ferry people across the White River. Once, he helped a bank robbery suspect cross the span and discovered there was a $100 reward for the robber's capture. The two waited and, soon, the man returned. Watkins and the friend invited the man into Watkins' houseboat. They tied him to a chair and called police.

Watkins used his share of the $100 reward to buy the family's first radio.

He was drafted and served in the Korean War, making a perfect score on the military's aptitude test and becoming an engineer. He ran a motor pool. Despite not finishing high school, Watkins taught math classes in a high school completion program for veterans.

Later, he earned a bachelor's degree in engineering and worked for Kodak and Westinghouse in Missouri and Ohio before becoming the chief engineer at Singer, and then Franklin Electric, in Jacksonville.

"We all grew up with conversations about strategy at the kitchen table," Asher said. "I got a Master of Business Administration [degree] at that table."

Watkins changed careers and went into real estate, opening Watkins Realty in Maumelle with his wife, Janet.

"He was such a good negotiator," said Janet Watkins, his wife of 44 years. "He was the peacemaker in volatile situations. Bill could talk to two parties ready to blow up and he could calm them down."

They raised four sons: Don Asher, William Harrison Watkins Jr., Clyde Watkins, and Bill "Bud" Watkins.

Janet Watkins says a close friendship was at the heart of their four decades of marriage. The two met in Little Rock and discovered that their parents were acquainted and lived within 3 miles of one another. They crafted a friendship that endured.

"We became best friends first," she said. "That's why our marriage lasted so long. That's how you do it."

He retired, selling the realty business to his son Bill Watkins, so he and his wife could travel.

"He lived every moment," she said. "He packed his life well."

Watkins and his wife bought a home near Mountain View, and the couple would go to the Stone County Courthouse Square where Watkins often told stories. He was a member of the Rackensack Folklore Society, an organization that shares old tales and folklore music.

They also traveled to campsites and Watkins would hold church services for travelers, his wife said.

He also continued to hunt and fish during his retirement.

A year before he died, Watkins often hunted on land owned bya his friend Jim Engle of Heber Springs.

"He had some eye problems then," Engle said of Watkins. "He wanted to go squirrel hunting. We set up a lawn chair for him and he shot at squirrels. He must have shot 35 to 40 times and he got a few squirrels.

"The next morning, I went to the barn to start up an air compressor and saw Bill shot holes through the barn, through the air compressor and the air lines. He shot up everything but the squirrels."

In 1994, Watkins and Asher traveled to the Mississippi River headwaters at Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota and spent about three weeks on the river, paddling to Minneapolis.

Watkins returned home after that first trek; Asher continued on to the river's end in Louisiana some three months later.

"He wanted to experience that," Asher said. "It was really meaningful to spend that kind of time with him."

State Desk on 04/22/2016

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