I learned many important lessons from him but here are a top five…  
1.	Potatoes are the vegetable  ---he was a meat and potatoes guy.  Would usually pass on the salad, fruit, veggies etc. 
2.	There are times to be very serious (dinner table—no dancing, singing, giggling, had to be quite at night in hotels), but there are definitely more times to be silly and have fun.  
3.	People can change and mellow over time. 
4.	Pick up the check when you can and treat people. 
5.	You can fix anything with enough glue and duct tape.

Dad always was waiting to win the lottery whether it was publisher’s clearing house or Texas Lotto, and he knew what he would do with that money down to the last penny and bought lotto tickets consistently.   I may have inherited some of that trait…

Though he didn’t win any big sum of money, he knew that he had won the lottery in life.   When I started going back more over the last couple of years to stay with him while mom went out to run errands, he became my little helper in the yard as we did yardwork. We would sit out on the porch together for long periods of time.  Once, this last year in a moment of clarity, he looked up at the row of stuffed animals on the shelf that of course he made for them and laughed.   He said “God bless your mother who has put up with me all these years, especially now. I don’t know what I would have done without her.  And you two girls grew up to be great kids.  I’m really proud of you both. I have been lucky.”  He wasn’t one for comments like that but this one slipped out.  
Dad, we will miss your antics, jokes, interesting gifts, knowledge on how to fix anything and just your presence. I know many people will miss your Christmas cards. I hope you are enjoying sitting on a porch somewhere and looking out over something beautiful.  
Thank you for everything.

He was very creative.  He made birthdays special and would design and decorate the cakes mom baked late at night in whatever theme we wanted.    You had to really look through any package he sent us as there was always money hidden in it.  Whether it was taped under a toilet seat, in the hands of a squirrel skeleton, sealed in a bar of soap or baked in cookies.   I unfortunately threw away a crazy package or two until mom clued me in.  He could build anything, including our 2 story playhouse, bookshelves, pens for the pets that randomly showed up in the backyard, a room for Lori when we shared one, you name it. 
He really enjoyed the outdoors whether it was yard work or washing cars or just sitting on the back porch.  Most of our family vacations involved a pop-up camper or a rented RV and camping with our cousins.   I am not sure who enjoyed the fishing trips he went on with his work buddies more…dad or mom having some quiet time for herself!   He was an avid Western Movie fan…loved his John Wayne and knew all the movies by heart.  
He had a way with kids and animals.   He had a special bond with his grandchildren Lauren, Linsdey and Laci when they were little—one mom might have been jealous of but maybe because he was still a child at heart.  He took us all to feed the ducks. He fed the birds in the back yard, leading way to the racoons and later the coyotes that would come out of the creek, which is when he decided to stop feeding animals.   Once when “Rocky” the raccoon didn’t get his food in time, he came to the window and scratched on it while we were all four eating dinner so we went out and fed him by hand.
He enjoyed spending time with his friends and family.    He took an early retirement and just slipped out of his last day at work without fanfare but a simple note left on his desk  “Elvis has left the building”.  Not wanting to draw attention to himself or have a big party.   He slipped out of life the same way, not wanting a big to do.

I remember as a little girl, that I was his helper.  Holding the flashlight just right so he could fix the car, going under the house to help find leaks, painting the fences, mowing and doing leaf days, and re-roofing the house.     Don’t worry dad, I won’t ever forget….3 inches from the bend at the washing machine—something that he said was very important and to help him remember.   
At the end of each school year, he made the date night a tradition.   Lori and I each got to pick wherever we wanted to go for a fancy dinner.  Dad wore his suit and we each got our own special night with him as a reward for good grades.   I wonder what would have happened if we failed a class?
He was a jokester and played pranks on everyone.   We often thought we never needed a brother because we had Dad.  He would send the most embarrassing Christmas cards of mom to all the family and friends.  He would hide things and in fact took my breakfast from my swim bag one morning and so I was not happy at the end of practice.  So I had to plan an appropriate response and hid all the straws in the house so he couldn’t drink his coffee in the morning.  Though I did forget to get the ones hidden in his precious Pontiac, so it was hard to get a one up on him.   He told his same dad jokes for decades and decades and decades.  I would bring hats back from my travels and it got to be a tradition for Lori and I to do this.   Of course, then he would dress up in a ridiculous outfit and wear said hats to pick me up at the airport or to his breakfast gatherings with his work friends or other public functions.   Sometimes he showed up in loud Hawaii 5-O outfits…..And mom would say, you started this!

It is my honor to provide a few comments on my dad and I hope that you all get to know a bit more about him today as we celebrate his life.  He served many roles to those of us here: he was a brother, a friend, a work colleague, a husband, a father, an uncle, a brother-in-law, a father-in-law, and a grandfather.   I think he would be pleased that you are all here today. 
He was born in Philadelphia but always wanted to claim that he was a true Texan.   I think he did believe that but as soon as he opened his mouth, his native accent would of course give him away… asking for that glass of “wooter”.    
He joined the Navy with his best friend Frank Proud—perhaps before he was legally allowed to sign and then discovered he was prone to seasickness so carried his trusty pail on the transport ships.  Through his time in the Navy, he was able to see the world but decided that there was no better country than the US.  He was proud of his service and his country and didn’t really see the need to travel outside it anymore.    
He went to Dallas for a job and was staying with a friend and by chance met mom when she was visiting her sister in the same apartment complex and the rest was history.  They made a home on Sasanqua Lane just before I was born which holds a lifetime of memories and treasures.  They just had their 60th wedding anniversary in September.
He had many nick names…Hark, Knarf, mom called him Frannie sometimes.   But I started the one which morphed over time but really stuck.   Apparently, I started calling for him from my crib to come get me when he walked by…Doodly ….doodely—how dare he walk past me and not get me out.   Maybe I couldn’t say daddy….so he became doodly, then doodleman, which was his favorite, then doods then finally dude. We found dude shoes, dude shirts, dude cards etc. to give him over the years.

Ole Uncle Frank, doodle man, my Uncle.

I never realized just how great my childhood was until I got older. I never knew my Mom and I were poor. I never needed or wanted for anything. My most memorable parts of my childhood were due to you and Aunt Wilma. Camping trips, gathering sticks, cause you know. 

Thank you for being the Uncle, more like the dad I didn’t have.

Debbie

I learned very early in life my big brother Frank was a Hero to me when I was 7 we had a very bad ice storm and the sidewalks were a sheet of ice.  Frank got my sister and I up Calumet Street a huge hill one house at a time placing safely by their steps one sister at a time.  Frank always looked after his sisters.  He will always be greatly missed

When Francis retired, the last greeting he left on his phone was “Elvis has left the building”.  I used to call his number to listen to that message and have a smile. I’m proud to say I worked with Harkins. When I came onboard (got hired) he was the de facto welcoming committee for the MEs, who were without a doubt the biggest group of miss-matched socks and scallawags I’ve ever met. I love those guys. Francis was the one who kept the entire group from spinning out of control. He encouraged whoever needed encouragement, and called out whoever needed to take a seat. We built amazing things inside the fluorescent hive, and Francis was always on the move, usually with a roll of circuit card schematics tucked under his arm. I’m sad that he’s left the building.

The  last day he  worked before he retired there were only three of us left in the Mechanical Engineering group. He was very excited just like I was 13 years later.  Francis (AKA Hark) showed me a picture that I don't think many ever saw.  It was Hark wearing a Philadelphia Police uniform (he looked very young).  The picture was more proof that he was a very amazing guy.  I will surely miss those wonderful days working around Hark. 
Hark was a DIY kind of guy...a squirrel got in the attic of his house.  To solve the problem Hark cut the end of an extension cord off and mounted it to the hole opening for the squirrel to be electrocuted.  I told him "you're lucky if the house doesn't burn down".  Never heard if the squirrel survived.  Hark... You were a big part of my life, I'll miss ya. -David B. Ambler

I knew Francis in the 80s and 90s and really enjoyed every minute. He was always funny and clever and unique.  He will be missed.

With tremendous respect, 

Charlie Barnum

Praying for Wilma and their family for God’s peace and comfort during this time. 
Thankful to have worked with Francis in the 80’s &. 90’s. He always had funny angle to look at every situation.  Enjoyed those “drafting” years!  May he rest in peace.

OBITUARY

Francis James Harkins

September 10, 1937 – December 4, 2024

Sparkman-Crane Funeral Home

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