William was born on the 30th of July 1870, in Waco, Texas, and at the age of 15, he received an appointment to the US Naval Academy. Over the next five years, he served on three different ships and graduated from the Academy, commissioning as an Ensign on the 1st of July 1891. One of the three ships he served on prior to the campaign at Vera Cruz was the USS Indiana, which was the country’s first battleship, and by 1905, William was a Lieutenant Commander and went to the Bureau of Equipment’s Compass Office for navigation instruction. He was then the Navigator for the USS Minnesota during its circumnavigation of the globe from 1907 to 1909. William received command of the USS San Francisco in 1912 at the rank of Commander and this ship was one of forty-one ships to be deployed to Mexico in April of 1914. It was his actions here that would earn him the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:

For distinguished conduct in battle, engagements of Vera Cruz, 21-22 April 1914. During this period, Comdr. Harrison brought his ship into the inner harbor during the nights of the 21st and 22d without the assistance of a pilot or navigational lights, and was in a position on the morning of the 22d to use his guns with telling effect at a critical time.

After the Mexican Campaign, William attended the Naval War College and served with the Bureau of Navigation. However, he spent the end of 1915 and most of 1916 on sick leave after being admitted to a hospital, for reasons I am unable to find. William retired from the Navy on the 22nd of May 1919, and he and his wife, Kate, had two children: William Jr, who became an Army Lieutenant General and served in both World Wars and the Korean War, and Wentworth, who died at the age of 16. William Kelly Harrison died on the 15th of August 1928, at the age of 58 and he is buried with his wife in Arlington National Cemetery: Section 2, Grave 1080.