[Nhcoll-l] Passing of Stephen L. Williams

[rw at protectheritage.com]

Thank you for sharing Marcia.

We have indeed lost a great man, colleague, and friend.

Your suggestion that he is the father of collection management is, to my
mind, very accurate. Many years I shared a room with Steve during SPNHC
conferences and many times we would be up until the wee hours of the morning
solving most, if not all, of the world's problems. At the Victoria meeting I
remember we slept in and he had to literally run to the lecture hall to
deliver his paper - poor Steve was pretty upset as you can imagine. He is
still being productive though - being a coauthor of one of the chapters in
the Preventive Conservation: Collection Storage book due out this fall. It
is just like Steve to never quit! Steve will be missed mostly by his great
family but also by all of us working in collection management, especially in
natural history museums.

Rob

 

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Revelez,
Marcia (CDC/OPHSS/CSELS/DLS)
Sent: Friday, August 3, 2018 5:34 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Passing of Stephen L. Williams

 

It is with profound sadness that I share the shocking news of the passing of
our dear friend, Stephen L. Williams.  He was the prototype for the
Collection Manager and he had such a strong impact on how we manage natural
history collections today - he helped define the museum professional.  His
body of work includes over 130 publications, nearly 100 of those
contributing to the body of knowledge about collections care and management.
He was a native west Texan from Midland (where my family is from).  He
received undergraduate and master's degrees in biology as well as another
master's in Museum Science at Texas Tech University.   His career included
positions at the Natural Science Research Laboratory at Tech, Carnegie
Museum, and Strecker Museum at Baylor (now the Mayborn).  He was a great
mammalogist too and he combined the best of field research, mammal
systematics, taxonomy, and broke ground on research pertaining to
collections.  

 

He was a strong family man, and the video at the end of his obituary can
attest to that.  We will miss you Steve.  Rest well.

Obituary link: https://www.lakeshorefuneralhome.com/dr-stephen-l-williams/ .
The funeral was today in Waco, TX.  In lieu of flowers, donations may be
made to Dup15q Alliance
(https://dup15q.networkforgood.com/projects/43843-support-the-dup15q-allianc
e-mission).

 

 

When I traveled to my first SPNHC meeting and met him as a young
professional - I felt like I was meeting the Father of Collections
Management - and maybe he was.  I still remember stalking him and wanting to
talk to him and learn as much as I could about his history and contributions
- what a privilege.  He was always encouraging and supportive and of course
we had our Texas bond.  I always thought that if you are a collections
manager in mammalogy - there isn't much that you do that didn't originate
from him.  My fondest memories will be all of those conversations but most
of all dancing with him at those SPNHC banquets.  

 

Please feel free to use this email string to share memories of Steve.  

 

 

 

Marcy Revelez

Collections Manager and Acting Team Lead, CDC Biorepository

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention



 

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