William Kennedy Starkey lost his battle with cancer on November 5th at his home in Galena, MD. Bill was born in Trenton, NJ on August 25, 1940 to Paul and Elizabeth Starkey of Morrisville, PA.

Bill grew up on the Starkey Farms in Yardley, PA and Galena, MD. He went to Princeton Day School, then went to St. George's School in Newport, RI graduating in 1959.  Bill attended Middlebury College where he met his wife Barbara the first day. He needed some notes from the Orientation session and she seemed a very attractive source. They dated and eventually married during their sophomore year. (1961) After graduating from Middlebury in 1963, Bill and Barbara moved to Maryland where Bill entered the University of Maryland Masters of Agricultural Engineering Program. After receiving his Masters, he worked for Green Giant as a Fieldman for their Woodside Processing Plant until he was asked to come work at the company headquarters in Le Seur, Minnesota.

In 1970, Bill, Barbara and their young sons Brennan and Chris returned to the farm in Galena and have lived there happily ever since. An engineer at heart, a farmer by trade, and a sailor by passion, Bill was equally at home on a computer keyboard, the helm of a sailing vessel, and the wheel of a tractor. Bill had unbounded curiosity about what made things work and new technologies on the horizon. He was always looking for a better way which led him to install one of the first tractor guidance systems in the Eastern US and eventually become a dealer for AutoFarm and Ag Leader years before guidance became commonplace. For 30 years Starkey Farms Co. was one of the largest fresh market spinach producers in the country. Bill developed numerous improvements to the planting, harvesting, and packing operations until the operation was shifted from packing its own product to growing for freezer operations on the East Coast.

Bill's love of sailing developed at an early age during the summers he spent in Blue Hill, Maine. He learned to row shortly after learning to walk and has spent much of his life on boats. He loved to race and he loved to cruise. He did one Transatlantic Race, 10 Newport-Bermuda and Annapolis-Newport races, numerous Halifax races, and Atlantic Class Series races with some of the most experienced sailors in the country.

He also did extensive cruising over the years on the Maine Coast, Novia Scotia, the Hudson Bay and coast of Labrador, the South Pacific, and Caribbean. He was a member of the Cruising Club of America and the Kollegedgwok Yacht Club. In 2018 he purchased Meander, an Allied Seawind 32 with a partner and they cruised it from the Chesapeake to Blue Hill every year with family and friends.

He is survived by his wife Barbara, son Brennan and his wife Pat, son Chris and his wife Liz, and grandchildren Ian, Will, Molly, and Page and a number of close cousins.

A private service for immediate family will be held. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to Compass Regional Hospice in Centreville, MD or the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Arrangements by Galena Funeral Home of Stephen L. Schaech.