Keith Wendell Harris

Keith Wendell Harris was born July 22, 1938, in Hunt County, Texas, to Veta Threlkeld Harris and Kermit Will Harris, who both predeceased him. He was their first child, and everyone in the family called him Wendell. As America entered World War II, the family left behind cotton farming and moved to a duplex in Oak Cliff in Dallas, where his dad would eventually open Harris Motor Co. Across the street from their home was a creek, where Keith and his buddies would catch crawdads and swing from the trees like Tarzan. He attended John F. Peeler Elementary School through eighth grade.

By this time, brother Michael had been born, and the family moved twice more in Oak Cliff. He attended W.H. Adamson High School from ninth through 12th grade. He joined the ROTC and began playing football his sophomore year, earned a letter jacket his junior year and was named the No. 1 center his senior year. He also took mechanical drawing in high school and discovered that he liked it, which led him to take engineering drawing at what would become the University of Texas at Arlington.

As a high school senior, he joined the Texas Air National Guard, a reserve of the U.S. Air Force, and completed six years of service.

It was also during his high school senior year that he met the love of his life, Darrilyn Young. The high school sweethearts married in 1958 and have been married for 66 years. The young couple bought a new house in Oak Cliff and began raising a family. While Keith attended UTA, he worked several jobs, including at his daddy’s car lot; he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics.

Keith went to work for Ling-Temco-Vought (later Vought Corp.) in 1966 as a draftsman and then an aerospace engineer after graduating from college in 1969. Over his 33 years with the company, he worked on and led many projects, including for the A7C-Corsair II, the A7D-Corsair II, the TA-TC-Corsair II and the CF-17A Globemaster III; he even worked on the Space Shuttle program. But what he was most proud of in his professional life was his work on the wings of the Northrup B-2 Spirit (the Stealth Bomber). He worked on that “black project” for 18 years, most of which required top-secret clearance, and he was present at the public display of the bomber on Nov. 22, 1988, when it was rolled out of its hangar at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.

Despite his remarkable career, Keith cared most of all about his family. He and Darrilyn had two daughters, Heidi and Heather, and their life in the 1960s and ‘70s was iconically Americana. The family moved to Arlington, Texas, (with two short stints in California) and spent several weeks every summer traveling throughout the U.S. in a VW camper. They visited almost every national park in the American West – Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Glacier, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Mesa Verde, and, traveling east, Great Smoky Mountains. After the kids grew up, Keith and Darrilyn continued their travels, venturing to Alaska, the Great Lakes, New England, Florida, and their favorite – Hawaii – 10 times, beginning on their 25th anniversary.

In his retirement years, Keith pursued his lifelong hobby of photography. He not only photographed all of his family’s travels and catalogued them meticulously, but as the grandbabies began arriving, his photographic interests naturally shifted to the young ones. He left his family a treasure trove of memories. He was also photographer and co-publisher of the book Religious Art and Symbolism, which documents the stained glass and other pieces at First United Methodist Church of Arlington, which Keith, Darrilyn and their girls joined in the mid-1970s.

Keith was a proud fifth-generation Texan, and he was also the family historian on both sides of his parents’ families. He created comprehensive genealogies dating back to the 1750s of the Harris/Savage and the Threlkeld/Fife families that are treasured by the hundreds of offspring from those groups. He was a voracious reader of WWII history and remarked that he should have been a history teacher.

A diehard Dallas Cowboys fan, he held season tickets to the games originally played in the Cotton Bowl until the price went up to $50 a seat at the “new” Texas Stadium. He also loved his hometown Texas Rangers.

Keith died on May 9, 2025, at the age of 86. In addition to his wife, Darrilyn, he is survived by his daughters, Heidi Harris Cannella and Heather Harris Preola (Kevin); his grandchildren, Lauren Preola Jahner (Tyler), Natalie Preola, Chloe Cannella Ryer (Rod) and Cole Cannella (Madison); a great-grandson, Benjamin Cannella; a niece, three nephews and numerous great nieces and nephews. His brother, Mike, predeceased him.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that donations be made “In Memory of Keith Harris” to First United Methodist Church of Arlington, 313 N Center St., Arlington, TX 76011; or to The Assistance Fund, c/o Judith Pariseau, 8427 Southpark Circle, Suite 100, Orlando, FL 32819. On the check, please indicate the funds are to be used for the “Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Copay Assistance Program in Memory of Keith Harris.”