William Clifford Perkins Jr., 73, passed away last year on April 30, 2013, at Forsythe Hospital in Winston-Salem, N.C. He was born in Wilmington, Del., to the late William C. Perkins Sr. and the late Estella Bedford Perkins.

He is preceded in death by his brother Robert Perkins of Florida.

He is survived by his daughters and son-in-law, Pamela Baker and Jonathan W. “Bill” Baker of Vermont and Kathleen Perkins of Connecticut, his sisters and brother-in-law, Patricia Babine Reno of Maine and Barbara Tremblay and Maurice Tremblay of Florida. He also leaves his loving companion and soul mate, Claudia Jensen of Mesa, Ariz.

He graduated from Brunswick High School in 1958. Bill was an avid plane, train and automobile fan, with a genius for mechanics and innovation. His favorite phrase when asked how he fixed something was, “I took it apart, cleaned it and put it back together.” He worked in many fields in his lifetime and started his career with service to his country as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force from 1959 to 1963 as an aircraft mechanic.

Learning computers in the 1980s and graduating from Western International University as a paralegal in August of 1994, he was a lifelong student with an insatiable curiosity. Bill retired from the State of Arizona Department of Administration in 2004 and moved to North Carolina to pursue his interest in restoring Corvairs.

Memorial donations can be made to the American Diabetes Association.