On December 10, 1963, Tallahassee, Florida, lost a community leader
and pastor of Bethel Methodist Church. The Rev. W. Calvin Williams is
survived by his wife, Lucene, and four children: Ronnie, Mike, Caroline,
and Lucy all living at home; his parents and five brothers. Born in Donalsonville, Georgia, on September 23, 1923, he attended Florida State University from which he received a bachelor of science and master of science
degree. While at the University he became a member of the Phi Kappa
Phi National Honorary Society. He received a bachelor of divinity degree
from Candler School of Theology, Emory University, and had begun work on the doctor of philosophy degree at Florida State University.
Blinded in World War II, Brother Williams nonetheless went on to obtain higher education against odds that would have appalled many men. He had a consuming love for people and in addition to his pastoral and community work, served Tallahassee and surrounding communities as a marriage counselor. In this work, as in all of his endeavors, he excelled. At the time of his death his church was in the midst of the greatest gains in its history. One of his parishioners described him so well when he said, ''Our loss is great. Brother Williams was our friend, our pastor, and a dedicated man of God who labored faithfully in God's vineyard, and carried the burdens of all his people with grace, dignity and compassion. He was a man never satisfied with his services for Jesus, and was so filled with Divine discontent and so sensitive to the needs, both physical and spiritual, of those to whom he ministered, that he carried in his heart and soul their suffering."
To know Rev. W. Calvin Williams was to love him. He was loyal to The Methodist Church and represented it in a way that brought credit to the Kingdom of God. The warmth of his friendship and the degree of his leadership is attested by the fact that he served as President of the Tallahassee Chapter of the Florida Federation of the Blind; Vice Chairman of the Board of the Florida Council for the Blind and assistant chaplain of the House of Representatives. He had recently been appointed to the Governor's Committee for Employment of the Physically Handicapped and was Chairman of the Greater Tallahassee Youth for Christ.
In the example of his life has left the fragrance of Longfellow's words:
This life of mortal breath
Is but a suburb of the life elysian,
Whose portal we call death."