Necrology

Roswell Gridley Williams '37

Apr. 29, 1916-May. 15, 2005

Roswell Gridley Williams ’37, the senior ordained priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York at the time of his death, was born on April 29, 1916, in Clinton, NY. The son of Charles R. and Dorothy Gridley Williams, he grew up on the family farm in the area of Clinton called Chuckery Corners. “Ros” Williams came up the Hill to Hamilton in 1932 from Clinton High School. Pursuing few extracurricular activities, he focused on his studies while covering his college expenses by working in the library and picking up and delivering his fellow students’ laundry cases to the Clinton Post Office for shipment home.

Having survived such academic perils as flunking Professor Milledge Bonham’s history course “because I was not an artist, and didn’t have the correct colored pens for circling and underlining,” Ros Williams was graduated in 1937. He thereafter entered General Theological Seminary in New York City to prepare for the Episcopal ministry. Ordained a deacon and then a priest in 1940, he began his parish ministry as priest-in-charge of St. Mark’s Church in Candor, NY. Called in 1942 to be rector of Grace Church in Waterville, he became rector of St. Stephen’s in New Hartford in 1945. As a chaplain in the National Guard, he was called to active duty during the Korean War in 1951 and served for two years in the U.S. Army with the rank of captain.

After his military service, the Rev. Roswell Williams became rector of St. John’s Church in Oneida. From 1962 until his retirement in 1978, he served as rector of St. Paul’s Church in Watertown. Thereafter he moved back to Clinton, where he continued active as a supply priest. During the summers from 1979 to 1993 he was priest-in-charge of historic St. Paul’s in Paris Hill, which was founded in 1797. By that time he had delivered more than 2,350 sermons and gone through 26 automobiles and two bicycles while offering spiritual guidance 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He was dedicated to serving his Lord and His people, both churched and unchurched, and very much enjoyed his life as a parish priest.

Father Williams, who, except for a stint in France as an Army chaplain, had never strayed far for long from his native Clinton, was active in a wide range of community affairs. He served as chaplain of police and fire departments as well as American Legion posts, and was a founder of the Watertown Urban Mission. He also remained an ever-devoted Hamilton alumnus and assisted the College with its fund-raising activities. With his wife, the former Avis L. Norton, a high school teacher whom he had wed on July 10, 1943, in Waterville, he enjoyed extensive travel abroad. In addition, they found warmth during winter months on Marco Island in Florida.

In 2001, the Williamses left Clinton to take up residence in a retirement community in Oswego, NY. Roswell G. Williams, ever a mild-mannered, genial gentleman, died in Oswego on May 15, 2005, in his 90th year. In addition to his wife of 61 years, he is survived by a daughter, Susan Vorce; three sons, Alan N., Joel S., and Mark E. Williams ’76; and seven grandchildren and a sister.

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