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Subscribe to RSSeditor's note: Brian remembers his father Gordon L. Williams, who passed away over the weekend.
Gordon L. Williams was born in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1917. He earned a B. S. in physics at Bates College in Maine, where he also met his wife, Dorothy. As a four-year work-studies student, he along with classmate Edmund Muskie, was assigned to clean the campus Chapel. After 3 years of night-school he was awarded an MBA from New York University.
He entered the Army in World War II, and for a time worked with the legendary Helen Keller to help rehabilitate soldiers blinded in battle. He left the Army after four years, having achieved the rank of Captain. He entered the retail and marketing business as a trainee with the W. T. Grant Company. He was later the manager of the John Wanamaker department store in Center City Philadelphia, and as his career progressed he was named Director of Marketing for Corning Glass. He retired in 1982 as Vice President of the National Retail Merchants Association in New York.
He endured the death of his wife of over 50 years -- and the deaths of two of his children. He survived cancer, a heart attack (at age 50), two broken hips and countless pacemakers and replacement batteries... all the while maintaining a consistently sunny and optimistic view of life. He was blessed with 9 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.
He was a great father, a great provider and a great man. Brian and his surviving brother Richard will lovingly remember their Dad as a hardy New Englander -- born during the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson and seared by the Depression -- who went to work each day, a passenger on the Jersey Shore Line, to support his family for over 50 years. He died of complications from a stroke. He was 93 years old. The family is planning a private service.
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We celebrate a great life and a good man.
Our thoughts are with you and your family during your time of sorrow.
~M
A great life, wonderful family and a blessed gentleman. My prayers and thoughts are with you and yours during this time - be blessed by your memories and share them with others that they may be also.
Brian,
I am sorry to hear of the loss of your father. May your memories comfort you in this time. God bless and be with you and your family.
Mr. Williams,
Thank you for sharing your father with all of us. My sincere condolences.
Lori in California
Dear Friend Brian, My most loving, heartfelt condolences on your loss. I too lost my father, in January, so I have an idea of what you are feeling. However Brian, 93 years!!!!! : ) WooWhee!!! Celebrate with a smile (in your heart). I had my father for 84yrs and yes I am familiar with the cancer, the heart attacks and the stroke. So your dad had a long and full life (from what I've read) Maybe we'll be blessed to be here as long as your dad. He sure set the bar pretty high for you (lol)!!!!! You probably already know that the grief will start to fade -as I have experienced, the memories will continue... Godspeed to that great guy you had a life with for so long and a healing to you and your loved ones for the "blow" to your hearts. We'll be looking for you when you get back "home" in our living room! Peace
So sorry for your loss. Love your show and watch you all the time. Best wishes.
If you do find your eyes filling with tears at this time, I'm sure it's because of the proud feeling you have in your heart for having had such a fine, upstanding gentleman in your life and you were blessed to be able to call him "Dad".
To Brian and the Williams family:
My deep condolences to you on the loss of your father. As we learned by this piece, he was truly a great, remarkable man. My thoughts and prayers are with you at this difficult time. May he rest in peace.
Sincerely,
-Cary
dainty banned, constantly violating #1 of the Code of Honor.
Prayers and thoughts are with you and your family.
Your kind words about your Dad are lovely.
Thanks, Tyler. I appreciate the time you and attention you all are giving the blog. Thanks for keeping an eye out around here.
I am so sorry for your loss. Your father seemed like a remarkable and wonderful man.
Dear Brian,
My deepest condolences to you and your family. Your remembrances of your father were very moving.
Here is a passage that gave me such comfort when my father passed away last August.
May it give you comfort to remember all the ways your father's special love brought so much joy to yesterday. And may it give you comfort to remember too, that through the years your father found such happiness in you.
My thoughts and prays go to you, Mr. Williams, and your family. He truly was a great and a ture hard worker who did about everything from serving in WWII to being a great father. Its not easy to lose someone that was a figure that you would look up to for courage and strength. And he was a great humanitarian to help rehabiliting blinded soliders in battle. My family and I are sorry for your lose and you and your family are in your thoughts and prays.
Sincerely,
Adam
Although most of us never met your father, we have been blessed with the presence of his legacy - you, his son. What a wonderful life your father lead, and what a wonderful man he helped raise. My condolences to you and your family.
Rest in Peace Mr. Williams. Your son is doing you proud on a daily basis.
Sincere sympathy and a note of admiration to all the Williams family.
My sincerest condolences to you and your families. Having just lost my own dear 88 year old father to lung cancer, my heart aches for you. Your family, like mine, has been left with wonderful memories and the legacy of a great father and beautiful human being.
My deepest condolences to you and your family's loss. Thank you for sharing such a touching piece on your father with us. He seemed like a remarkable person and deserves every bit of acknowledgment of his great legacy. A legacy in which you are a part of thanks to your genuine nature & character. My family and I will be keeping you and your family in our prayers.
Brian,
My deepest condolences to you and your family for your loss. Sad coincidence the fact that this past weekend was Father's Day here in Brazil, which make your dad's passing even more touching for us. God Bless you and yours. Adriana
I'm so sorry for your loss, Brian. He sounds like a wonderful father, who did a great job raising his family. Thank you for sharing your memories with us.
Wishing you heart~felt sympathies in the passing of your father. Yourself and your brother are great examples of fine gentlemen, that your parents raised. All my best to u and your family. No matter what age they leave us, it's ALWAYS too soon ! God bless, Gina DeRose, Youngstown Ohio.
Brian,
My deepest condolences to you and your family for your loss. Sad coincidence as this past weekend was Father's Day here in Brazil, which makes your dad's passing even more touching to us. God Bless you and yours. Adriana
Brian your Dad and Mom are never really gone because you are a part of them. God gave us a camera to keep the pictures of the ones we love. Your Dad live to see one of his children grew to be the man he taugt him to be and how you have given to the World. Each time you reach out to help or show the respect to others it's the lessons you were taught. Just think how proud you Dad is as he tells your Mom and others of how great you and your brother and grand/great gand kids are. My Dad use to say his Mom was smiling at the pride he gave her even from heaven. We never want to lose the ones we love but I hold faith we all will meet again. It's our book of life that is reviewed by God.
Brian,
My prayers and warmest thoughts to you and your brother. I can not imagine how small your family seems now. Know that you are your parent's child and that his legacy lives on in you and your own family.
I lost my 92 year-old father, Al Paulick, last Wednesday, and there is a common thread among so many of that generation whose childhood and early manhood had world wars as bookends and who grew up in the Great Depression: hard work, integrity, honesty and loyalty.
Gordon Williams had those qualities, and so did Al Paulick, who like Brian's Dad, was "a great father, a great provider and a great man." May all of our fathers rest in peace with the knowledge that through their sacrifices and hard work they truly made the world a better place for all of us.
I am sorry for Brian's loss. He seems like such a nice person that I know his father was a fine man.
My condolences on your loss. Brian, I know you'll recognize these words and understand the spirit in which I mean them: "Grab your ticket and your suitcase, thunder's rollin' down the track..." Here's to comfort and solace, and faith in that Land of Hope and Dreams. Many thoughts are with you.
Brian,
I'm so sorry to hear about your father. How lucky you were to have had such a wonderful man in your life and for so long. You and your family are in my thoughts.
i hope he is with you in spirit for a long while, brian. my father's voice spoke to me for a good 4-5 months after he passed. the veil is very thin for some of us. it's not the same as being with them and sharing a meal or a talk, but it is a great comfort, nonetheless. may our thoughts and prayers support you and your brother.
No wonder you turned out so well, Brian Wiliams!
Your father has left you with a great gift - memories of him. As long as his life's story and your memories last, so will he. May you and your family be comforted by family and friends. And, because I only get to see the public persona of who you are, I'm sure that I have a glimpse of who your father was. What a great man and hero. May you live in peace.