Necrology

John Edgar Williams, Jr. '44

Mar. 24, 1922-Feb. 7, 2023

John “Jack” Edgar Williams, Jr., ’44, P’74, GP’11 died in his 100th year on Feb. 7, 2023, in Cincinnati. He was born in New Rochelle, N.Y., on March 24, 1922, but when the Great Depression hit, the family moved several times as his father searched for work. They ultimately settled in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and Jack came to Hamilton from Shaker Heights High School.

A member of Psi Upsilon fraternity, Jack majored in economics and mathematics, though reportedly the latter discipline was not his strong suit. He recalled that a member of the mathematics faculty recommended that he not contemplate graduate study in the field. Jack played football and hockey, and ran track, lettering in all three sports, while also performing in the College Choir.

World War II interrupted his education. In January 1943, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, and, after the D-Day invasion, he was assigned to the 75th Infantry Division then operating in Northern France. In December 1944, Jack and his unit were in the Ardennes Forest in what would prove to be the deadliest single battle of the war: the Battle of the Bulge. Making matters worse, the weather was brutal, with freezing temperatures accompanied by rain, snow, and sleet. Jack would recall sharing a foxhole with another soldier that Christmas Eve, huddling together to keep from freezing. On Christmas Day, his platoon was among the American forces that repelled an attack by a German Panzer Division in the town of Grandménil, Belgium. Following a series of battlefield promotions, and now a second lieutenant, he was assigned in 1945 as stockade commander at a prisoner of war camp in Germany. He was discharged later that year after two-and-a-half years of service.

Returning to Hamilton, he earned his degree in June 1947. Among his other achievements was serving as president of the Student Council and earning the Fowler Award as the football team’s most valuable player. After Hamilton, he attended Harvard Business School to study marketing.

On a sunny September afternoon in 1947, a week after he began his first semester, Jack and three other business school students visited the campus of Wellesley College. There, he was matched up with a young woman from Westfield, N.J.: Elizabeth Buchanan. They clicked. The next weekend, the two of them met up again, this time at a mixer on the Harvard campus, and their relationship unfolded from there. They married on June 25, 1949, in her hometown. They had four children.

A week after their wedding, the Williamses moved to Detroit, where Jack began work in merchandising at the J.L. Hudson Department Store, bringing with him not only his Harvard education but also experience in retail sales acquired at Macy’s New York store during the summer of 1948. While he worked at Hudson’s, Elizabeth began graduate work at the University of Michigan in human development and psychology, studies that culminated in a doctorate and led to her academic career in gerontology.

In time, they moved from Detroit to the northern suburb of Grosse Pointe Park and then later to Grosse Pointe Farms. On the shore of Lake St. Clair, the latter community was in an ideal spot for the family’s sailing hobby.

In 1975, after 25 years at Hudson’s, Jack’s employment was suddenly terminated following the appointment of a new president. Undeterred, he set up two new companies. The first, Michigan Shelf Distributors, marketed shelving and other furniture to new businesses. The second, Michigan Incentive, a manufacturing sales representative firm, promoted the idea of using various “premiums” to attract customers to new businesses. Both were highly successful.

Jack also began to work as a carpenter. Now licensed as a builder, he started out constructing additions for houses, including an expansion to a family-owned cabin on Lake Huron. He soon lent his skills to the rehabilitation of the Detroit neighborhood of Ravendale, an area that had fallen into disrepair. Grosse Pointe Memorial (Presbyterian) Church, where he was a member and for a time an elder and a deacon, played an important role in this all-volunteer effort. Jack ultimately oversaw the work of 60 volunteers in restoring what was arguably the most dilapidated structure in the community. 

After working in Ravendale, Jack turned his attention and skills to Habitat for Humanity. He organized building parties of young people from his own and 11 other churches to travel to various parts of the country to construct new homes and rehabilitate older ones. For his years of service, Jack would receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from Habitat for Humanity. He also designed and built a summer home for his family on Lac Courte Oreilles in Northern Wisconsin. While an electrician handled the electrical work, Jack did all the rest.

Jack started skiing while at the Harvard Business School, and it became a regular winter activity for his family. Every third weekend, the Williamses joined friends to travel north from Detroit to ski at Skyline Hill. Jack became particularly adept at skiing backwards, a skill that came in handy when he wanted to film others descending the slopes. Closer to home, where the terrain was flatter, cross-country skiing was the practice, and he and his family traveled to Europe on two occasions to enjoy the sport.

For many years, Jack was a member of the Grosse Pointe Senior Men’s Club, serving as the organization’s president for a year. He arranged for guest lecturers on a wide variety of subjects. He also served as director of the Mosse Point Hunt Club and joined the advisory board of the Economic Club of Detroit.

Jack also played golf, though with a notable slice. He and Elizabeth played tennis, winning a few tournaments on the courts, and he was an accomplished squash player as well. When not outdoors, he was an avid reader of history. So well known was his interest among his friends, that at least once at Christmas he received multiple copies of the same history-themed book as gifts.

Hamilton meant a great deal to Jack, and given the nature of his career, not surprisingly, the public speaking requirement exerted a great and positive influence on him. Influential faculty included Professor of History Edgar B. “Digger” Graves, Professor of Mathematics Boyd Patterson, and basketball coach Mox Weber. He repaid the College with exemplary service over the years as a volunteer for two capital campaigns, as a member of the Alumni Council and Alumni Association, and on his class committee, reunion gift committee, and special gifts committee. Capping his generosity over 44 years, Jack became a Joel Bristol Associate, establishing a charitable trust to benefit Hamilton.

John E. Williams is survived by his wife of almost 74 years; four children, including John B. Williams ’74, P’11; 14 grandchildren, including Michael H. Williams ’11; and 21 great-grandchildren.

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