PROF. W. J. G. WILLIAMS 
 

Prof. W. J.G. Williams, whose death occurred in San Francisco on the 24^th of February, 1917, was one of the veteran figures in educational circles in California when death thus closed his long and useful life. He was a man of high intellectual attainments, which he used effectively in advancing the education of the young, and his noble and kindly character gained to him the love and respect of those with whom he came in contact in the varied relations of life. The angle of his influence ever widened in beneficence and he continued his association with educational affairs in his loved home city until he passed forward to “that undiscovered country from whose borne no traveler returns.” 

Professor Williams was born in Richmond, Virginia, on the 22d of August, 1836, and was an only child, he having been a lad of nine years at the time of his father’s death, in 1845, and having then accompanied his widowed mother to Paris, France, where he received the best of educational advantages, including those of Sulspice College. After his return to his native land he became a member of the faculty of Jefferson College, Richmond, Virginia, and in the early ‘60s he came to California and became teacher of rhetoric and mathematics in St. Ignatius College at San Francisco, the institution having occupied the present mercantile establishment associated with the work of the public schools of San Francisco, and in this connection it is to be recorded that he was one of the first persons to serve as principal of the Broadway Grammar School. The last thirty years of his life were marked by his continued identification with school work—as principal or as a member of the city or the state boards of school examiners. In the closing period of his gentle and fruitful career he also served as teacher of languages at Washington Night School. 

Professor Williams married in Montreal, Canada, in 1859, Maria Lennon of Montreal, and Mrs. Jennie Hobbs is the only child of that union.  

December 21, 1871, recorded the second marriage of Professor Williams to Miss Ada Flowers, who likewise is deceased, and the two surviving children are Walter J.M. Williams, M.D. of San Francisco and Ida, wife of Mr. Center, of this city. 

 

Louise E. Shoemaker, Transcriber March 22^nd, 2004