It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Dr. James (Jim) G. Williams, Professor Emeritus, this past summer.
Williams was born on June 18, 1939, on a farm between Ligonier and Johnstown, PA, and began his education in a one-room country schoolhouse. He majored in math and chemistry at Clarion College through a football scholarship, teaching at Chartiers Valley High School afterwards.
While looking to take courses for extra credits needed to continue teaching, Williams read about a computer course taught by Dr. Allen Kent, who joined Pitt’s faculty in the School of Library and Information Sciences (SLIS) in 1963.
The course spurred his decision to pursue a Master of Library Science degree, which he earned in 1966. He then earned a PhD in 1972 from the school. He taught at the University of South Carolina for two years before returning to Pittsburgh as the assistant director of the NASA Industrial Application Center (NIAC). Preferring to teach, he joined the SLIS faculty in 1976.
During his career, Williams worked on a variety of impactful projects, including the first automated interactive library for the blind and physically handicapped for Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and a medical information system for the Department of Medicine at Pittsburgh’s Montefiore Hospital, now known as UPMC-Montefiore. He formulated a judicial information system for Westmoreland County and developed a copy mark conversion system for Xerox Corporation. He also helped to establish the Kuwait National Library.
He retired from the School of Information Sciences in June 2001.
You can share a memory of Williams and send condolences to the family here.
Note: Most of this information came from Tradition in Transition: A History of the School of Information Sciences.