A lawyer and policy analyst, he studied ways to forestall energy crises and other catastrophes. He died of Covid-19.
This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here. For nearly four decades, William R. Harris devoted his career to safeguarding his fellow citizens. As an international lawyer and a sought-after consultant, he drafted treaties to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and reduce the risk of accidental war. He modeled a framework for the government to continue functioning during a national catastrophe. He helped extend Daylight Saving Time to conserve fuel and focused officials on protecting the electrical grid from digital sabotage. He practiced what he preached, too, making sure to get his first vaccination for the coronavirus in early February, as soon as he was eligible and the vaccine was available. He completed the regimen by the end of the month. In late March, though, his family said, he received a jarring diagnosis: Covid-19. Mr. Harris also had chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and family members said that a few weeks after learning that he had Covid, he read an article in a scientific journal suggesting that the vaccine might not be fully effective for people with that type of leukemia. A week later, on April 21, he died in a hospital in Burlington, Mass. He was 79. His wife, Elizabeth, said the cause was Covid. Leukemia and other illnesses, as well as some treatments, can compromise the immune system and prevent it from properly responding to vaccines, leaving people still vulnerable to infection.
