George H. Williams Jr. Papers
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10735.1/1406
George H. Williams, Jr. was born in Frost, Texas on April 7, 1915. Shortly thereafter his family moved to Waco, Texas where he attended Sanger Avenue Jr. High and Waco High School, graduating in 1933. From 1934 to 1939 he attended Baylor University where he graduated with a BA in Business. From 1939 to 1941 he worked for Hodell and Company, a Houston, Texas area mortgage firm.
In 1941, George Williams enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, where he attended Officer Candidate School and radio and signals training at Harvard University. Upon completion of training he was assigned as a Signal Officer to the 94th Signal Battalion, based at Camp Crowder, Missouri in 1942. His unit was sent to Europe and played a part in General Patton’s relief of American forces trapped at Bastogne, during The Battle of the Bulge, in 1944. His unit remained in Europe repairing communication wires and telephone lines in Germany and France until late 1945. After returning to the United States at the end of the War he remained active in the Army Reserve until the 1950s.
Back in Dallas from the war, George Williams took a job as an executive with the mortgage division of Equitable Life Insurance Corporation. He also continued his interest in researching and collecting information about World War I aviation. He was involved with both the League of World War I Aviation Historians, and its journal, Over the Front, as well as Cross and Cockade and several other aviation societies.
He also worked with the History of Aviation Collection at The University of Texas at Dallas, helping it acquire the World War I collection of Ed Ferko, as well as numerous other World War I collections. He taught a World War I history class at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) in the late 1970s, and in 1988 he organized a World War I aviation seminar at the History of Aviation Collection that brought together 125 aviation scholars, as well as the only three surviving American Aces of World War I. Williams continued to volunteer his time and efforts at the History of Aviation Collection well into his 80s. He also donated his own extensive collection of World War I documents and photographs to HAC.
George Williams married his wife Ginny on May 27, 1933. They had three children; Holly (born 1944), Kay (born 1949), and Scott (born 1955). Williams passed away on June 15, 2006 at the age of 91.
In 1941, George Williams enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, where he attended Officer Candidate School and radio and signals training at Harvard University. Upon completion of training he was assigned as a Signal Officer to the 94th Signal Battalion, based at Camp Crowder, Missouri in 1942. His unit was sent to Europe and played a part in General Patton’s relief of American forces trapped at Bastogne, during The Battle of the Bulge, in 1944. His unit remained in Europe repairing communication wires and telephone lines in Germany and France until late 1945. After returning to the United States at the end of the War he remained active in the Army Reserve until the 1950s.
Back in Dallas from the war, George Williams took a job as an executive with the mortgage division of Equitable Life Insurance Corporation. He also continued his interest in researching and collecting information about World War I aviation. He was involved with both the League of World War I Aviation Historians, and its journal, Over the Front, as well as Cross and Cockade and several other aviation societies.
He also worked with the History of Aviation Collection at The University of Texas at Dallas, helping it acquire the World War I collection of Ed Ferko, as well as numerous other World War I collections. He taught a World War I history class at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) in the late 1970s, and in 1988 he organized a World War I aviation seminar at the History of Aviation Collection that brought together 125 aviation scholars, as well as the only three surviving American Aces of World War I. Williams continued to volunteer his time and efforts at the History of Aviation Collection well into his 80s. He also donated his own extensive collection of World War I documents and photographs to HAC.
George Williams married his wife Ginny on May 27, 1933. They had three children; Holly (born 1944), Kay (born 1949), and Scott (born 1955). Williams passed away on June 15, 2006 at the age of 91.