Background
He was born in Bellevue, Ohio, the son of Daniel M. Harkness (who was the half-brother of both Henry Flagler and Stephen V Harkness both founders of Standard Oil) and his wife Isabella Harkness. Upon his father Daniel"s death in 1896, he inherited a large share in Standard Oil, a company in which his father had been an early shareholder. He is the also a cousin of noted philanthropist Edward Harkness who also benefitted from his father"s involvement with Standard Oil.
Education
Will attended Bellevue Public Schools in Bellevue, Ohio and The Brooks Military School in Cleveland. In 1881, Harkness graduated from Yale University.
Career
In 1896, he moved from Cleveland, Ohio to a home at 12 East 53rd Street in New York City. He also owned a country home, Dosoris, at Glen Cove on Long Island. WIlliam L. died in New York City in 1919 and was buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New New York
He left an estate of $53,439,437 ($729,381,644 today ), of which $37,272,254 was stock in Standard Oil.
Shortly before his death, donated $400,000 to Yale University. The William L. Hall at Yale University was completed in 1927 as the gift of Mr.
West.L., Bachelor 1881, and his family. lieutenant is a Collegiate Gothic building of Aquia sandstone with Ohio sandstone trim and contains offices and lecture & recitation rooms for the French, German, and Music departments.
William Adams Delano was the architect.
The first of the West.L. yachts was the 195 foot Gunilda which he bought in 1903. While cruising Lake Superior, William L. directed his crew to continue on without a local guide through the Schreiber channel, as he believed the fees were too high
The Gunilda ended up running aground hard on McGarvey shoal.
Some blame his arrogance and others believe there were errors in United States charts he entrusted to navigate the Canadian waters.The Gunilda hit a reef and sunk off of Copper Island on Lake Superior near Rossport, Ontario in 1911. Jacques Cousteau labeled the Gunilda "the World"s finest shipwreck".
The second yacht, Agawa (seemingly named after the bay where the Gunilda was sunk), saw duty in both WWi and World World War II as the United States Ship Cythera (PY-26) The Cythera saw action in both World War I and World World War World War II The yacht was leased to the Navy in the first World War and then returned to the family. In World World War II, Edith H. sold the Agarwa to the United States Navy for $1 to be converted to the patrol yacht United States Ship Cythera (PY-26) and commissioned on 3 March, 1942.
At 0047, 2 May 1942, the patrol yacht United States Ship Cythera (PY-26), broken into two sections during a torpedo attack, slid beneath the waters of the cold North Atlantic.
She had been at sea just 21 hours 45 minutes, bound from Norfolk, Virginia, to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. lieutenant was initially assumed by the United States Navy that all 71 crew members had been lost and their families were notified on 2 June 1942 of their "missing status". However, for two crewmen this was not the case.
The second yacht of William had sunk to the depths.
Membership
He gave encouragement to Henry Durand, a classmate, friend and member of the Wolf"s Head Society, when Durand arranged Bright College Years. A yachtsman and sportsman, he was a member of the New York Yacht Club, the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club and Piping Rock Club.