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Last year, on a day when the skies were clear, Bill Leggett wanted to take his good friend Tom Williams up on a flight over Kingston. The two former Queen’s principals had known each other for 30 years, but this would be the first time Dr. Leggett, an experienced pilot, would be in a cockpit with his pal.   

Dr. Williams’ son Glen wasn’t so sure about the plan. 

“I was just like, ‘Is this a good idea? An 85-year-old academic up flying around?’”

Turns out, it was. 

Dr. Williams had been battling cancer for a couple of years at that point, but his son says the flight over his beloved city and university invigorated him.    

“It was the most energized he had been in two years – and he told us that he actually flew the plane home!”

Maybe son shouldn’t have been too surprised that dad was so solid behind the yoke, however. Talk to enough people who knew Dr. Williams, and two words come up again and again: reliable and dependable. 

Indeed, they come up for whichever role Dr. Williams held, say family, friends, and colleagues – whether as a husband, father, grandfather, friend, role model, or educator. And they certainly rang true during his 30 years at Queen’s, they add, particularly when he came out of retirement to serve as the university’s principal and vice-chancellor in 2008, a time when order and stability were needed.  

Dr. Williams passed away in Kingston on Jan. 3. He was 85. He is survived by his wife, Maureen Ball, four children, and seven grandchildren. 

Dr. Williams was born in Peterborough, Ont., on Sept. 9, 1939 – the same day Canada’s House of Commons voted to declare war on Germany – but soon moved with his family to Saint-Lambert, Que., near Montreal. It was there that he learned to play hockey and referee football, and began a lifelong love of the Montreal Canadiens.   

He began his post-secondary education at McGill University, where he graduated in 1960 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. He stayed on at McGill to complete two degrees in education before working at the University of Chicago. He then earned his doctorate in education from the University of Michigan before work took him to the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.

In 1977, Dr. Williams was offered the job of dean of Queen’s Faculty of Education. It was a big change for him and his first wife, Sherrill Williams, who predeceased him in 1991, to move from Toronto to a smaller city, says Glen, especially with three kids in tow ranging from five to 11 years old. 

But Dr. Williams immediately connected deeply with the Kingston and Queen’s communities, says Glen. “He firmly believed it was the best university in Canada and a world-class school, and he loved that the size of Queen’s helped create that sense of community that couldn’t be achieved at larger institutions.”

Dr. Williams remained the dean of education until 1986. He also served as a professor in the Faculty of Education and in the School of Policy Studies. Under Principal David Chadwick Smith (1984–1994), he served as vice-principal of operations and as vice-principal of institutional relations. 

Dr. Leggett first met Dr. Williams just after Dr. Leggett was named Queen’s 17th principal. It was the spring of 1994, and Dr. Leggett and his wife were house hunting in Kingston when Dr. Williams invited them for dinner. 

“Our conversation went well into the night – it was a wonderful evening – and it was the beginning of a strong and lasting friendship,” says Dr. Leggett. “He didn’t have to be that generous, but he was – that’s who he was.” 

He also had a tremendous sense of humour, adds Dr. Leggett. “One thing that everybody who talks of Tom remembers – from students right up through alumni and others – was that he had a wonderful ability to see the light in the darkest of days and bring some humour to it, which made everybody feel good.”

That ability was on full display after Dr. Williams came out of retirement to become Queen’s 19th principal and vice-chancellor on May 1, 2008, following the resignation of Dr. Karen Hitchcock. 

“That was a tumultuous time, and a bit of a scary time for the university’s board of trustees,” says Katie Macmillan, Artsci’78. She was on that board when she first met Dr. Williams, who would become a close friend. “But it was very reassuring for us that Tom came in. He had a really wonderful, modest way of dealing with problems. He was an extremely pragmatic thinker and was unencumbered by dogma and agenda. He calmed the place down at a time where there was a lot happening.”

As principal, Dr. Williams focused on addressing the university’s growing budget gap, in part by leading a three-year budget strategy developed with vice-principals and deans. He engaged the campus community in numerous discussions as well and set up a series of task forces to tackle issues such as cost control, revenue generation, communications, and technology use. 

Dr. Williams also oversaw renaming the Policy Studies Building to Robert Sutherland Hall, honouring Queen’s first Black student and graduate and a key early benefactor, and secured funding for a new medical school building and the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts.

When he finally fully retired from Queen’s in August 2009, Dr. Williams had more time to devote to his other passions, such as golf, travel, and a disdain for the Toronto Maple Leafs. But he kept teaching right up until the end, including giving a lecture at Queen’s Medical School and leading a photography course for seniors in his final months.   

Through it all, his reliability and dependability never wavered, says Glen, especially for his family. 

“He was the one we all turned to for advice and guidance, and he had an amazing knack for getting at what was really important in a situation.”

And as for his dad’s legacy, he needs just eight words: “Father, grandfather, husband, role model, educator, Queen’s guy.”