Walter M. Williams High School - Namesake

Namesake

The school was named for Walter McAdoo Williams (March 1, 1891–May 5, 1959), a native of Liberty, Randolph County, North Carolina, and son of Joel P. and Flora A. Spoon Williams. Considered a "giant in the textile world", he was a member of the Board of Trustees of what is now Wake Forest University and a local citizen recognized for his role in making the high school possible from a financial standpoint. In April 1912, at the age of twenty-one, he moved to Graham, North Carolina. From 1930 to 1940, he had served as Chair of the Burlington School District's school board. He was also executive vice-president and chairman of the board of Virginia Mills, based in Swepsonville, North Carolina. In 1940, he became executive vice-president and chairman of the board for Virginia Cotton Mills in Swepsonville, from which he retired on February 17, 1959. In 1945, the Williams' made the purchase of the campus land possible. When the possibility was raised that the seating capacity in the proposed auditorium would be substantially cut back, they made it possible to retain the planned 2,500 seat capacity. It is believed that the auditorium is the second largest high school auditorium on the east coast. They also donated the auditorium's organ as well as a Steinway grand piano. They were very resistant to the idea of the school being named for them. A member of both Kiwanis and Lions, Williams actively supported the Baptist Orphanage in Thomasville, North Carolina and the Masonic Orphanage in Oxford, North Carolina. The Williams' had no children of their own. In 1950, Williams was named Citizen of the Year by the Burlington Kiwanis Club.

Williams served on the Board of Trustees of Wake Forest University during the period of the institution's transition from rural Wake County to Winston-Salem. In addition to the Williams' contributions to the high school, the organ in Wait Chapel on the Reynolda campus of Wake Forest University is named in honor of he and his wife Flonie Cooper Williams (1893–1975). The Williams donated the organ at Wake Forest in 1956. In addition, a three-manual Reuter organ was given and installed as a memorial to Williams in Binkley Chapel on the Olde Campus of Wake Forest. The Williams' were active in Hocutt Memorial Baptist Church. It is interesting to note that the school's colors of black and gold are the same as those of Wake Forest University, an institution with which Williams had ties. Williams was also a trustee for North Carolina Baptist Hospital.

Ironically, Mr. Williams stopped attending school at age twelve and was largely self-taught.

Williams died on May 5, 1959, after spending seven months in a coma following suffering from a brain tumor. He is buried in Pine Hill Cemetery, only a few blocks from campus, and almost within view of the school.

The Burlington Board of Education had voted in November 1945 to name the school after Williams. However, the decision was not announced until October 27, 1949.