William Rufus Williams (1922 - 2013)

The Life and Times of William Rufus Williams

May 14, 1922 to December 19, 2013

Daddy’s Family and Early Life

Daddy was born in May of 1922. His father, William Rufus Williams, died in December of 1921. His father, an immigrant from Nevis, was a senior administrator in the prison service in St Lucia. It was believed that his father was poisoned by a jealous co-worker (who gave him an orange to eat) while he lay in a hospital bed after some minor medical procedure.

Daddy’s mother, Lena Green, was born in St. Lucia. Her father was William Green, a brick-layer from Barbados. He helped to build the barracks at Vigie. He was married 3 times and had two sets of children. Grandmother Lena was from the first set of children and grandmother Lena had a sister who lived in Martinique. Grandmother Lena’s mother (Mr. Green’s first wife) and the 2nd wife had both died. William Green had a grocery shop. (His wooden house still stands just past the SDA Mission office that is next to the Maranatha SDA church – it is on the left side of the street as one journeys past the Mission office into Vide Boutielle). He baked bread to sell in his shop. He would have his children up as late as 4am baking bread. When grandmother Lena attended the Anglican primary school, the headmaster would sometimes let her take a nap because she was so sleepy at school (from working hard baking bread). Mr. Green could not read and write and became blind before he died. One of his daughters (Carmie) sold the house right away after he died.

Grandmother Lena was the first cousin of William Ingles who lived on Chaussee road. He was a mulatto man with a bald head. Mr Ingles was the great uncle of the Bristol boys (John and Hollis). The Bristol’s mother, an Ingles, was married to Dr. Bristol of Grenada who practiced in St. Lucia. She was the niece of William Ingles. Grandmother Lena also had a brother (Dad’s uncle) named Rogers who used to farm on the land at Bocage. Daddy also had a great uncle who rode a horse. There was a woman named Ma Metille who was about 100 years old when Dad went into the army. Soldiers were afraid of her. She was thought to be a Garget. She knew Daddy’s great uncle.

Daddy’s father owned a house and land up Morne du Don road and another house on Jeremie st in Castries. Daddy started life living with his Mom on Jeremie St. When he was about about 8 years old, his Mom left for Bermuda. Then Daddy moved to live with Ma Martin in the country [his father’s house way up Morne du Don road]. Mackie’s mother, Matilda, was about 5 to 10 years older than Daddy. She and Daddy lived in Morne du Don together with Ma Martin. His sister Selena was more than 10 years older. There was also an older child who had died (Iris). Grandmother Lena provided regular financial support to Ma Martin for taking care of her children. At some point, Daddy’s father’s original house from up on Morne du Don was moved much lower down. This is the house where cousin Ezekiel’s tailor shop was and where Lera La Force lived (near the bottom of Morne du Don road).

Ma Martin (Lera La Force’s mother, John La Force’s grandmother) was a good friend of Daddy’s mother but not a relative. In contrast, Evans LaForce’s mother and Grandmother Lena were first cousins (Evans’ father was a Chastanet). Mr. Geum (St Rose) and Elfreda (who both lived on Morne du Don road) were relatives of Daddy’s and also related to King JaJa.

Ezekiel Crosby (“Cousin Ezekiel” whose shop was in the same house with Lera LaForce) had a brother named Manasseh. As boys, he and Daddy often played the guitar together. Daddy also had a friend named Anthony Norbert who played many instruments. Daddy and Anthony would sometimes play together (Daddy would play the guitar or banjo) for different parties and make a little money. One time they went to a dance/party and played almost the whole night. Daddy earned 7 shillings from playing the guitar that night.

Daddy was raised an Anglican and attended the Anglican Primary School in Castries. Albert Drakes was a fellow student – he was 2 years older (he sang in the school choir). Dad faithfully attended Sunday school and communion every week as a youngster. Both Sir Arthur Lewis and one of his brothers were among his Sunday school teachers.

Work History

After completing the Anglican Primary School, Daddy’s first job was working for Mr John H. Pilgrim’s newspaper, The West Indian Crusader. Daddy worked as a printer/typesetter with Mr. Pilgrim for about a year. Julian Theobalds was Daddy’s god-father, and he had gotten him the job with Mr. Pilgrim. Daddy’s next job was as a Mechanic’s assistant at the Cul de Sac Sugar Cane factory for a season (3 months). Mr. George Charles was an overseer at that factory. Daddy next traveled to work as a Mechanic at the Bell Sugar Cane factory in Barbados (also for one season). His mother’s cousin (William Ingles) gave him the money to go to Barbados. (Job James was another family friend who sometimes gave Daddy money). He traveled to Barbados on the ship Lady Nelson. On a subsequent voyage, a German submarine sunk Lady Nelson in Castries harbor. Things were hard in the Barbados because of the war. Many ships were sunk in the Atlantic by German U boats. Dad fell ill in Barbados and returned to St. Lucia on a ship called Ruth. He was the only passenger on that voyage.

When he was about 18 years old Daddy next went to Curacao on a ship called the C. S. Flight (it was a schooner with sails). The C. S. Flight was sunk by a submarine (U-boat) on its way back to St. Lucia. Dad worked as a tank gauger at an oil refinery in Curacao. His job involved climbing the ladder to let tape down to measure the oil in the tank. At night, he had to use a tiny flash light because of the war. He also worked as a fireman at the refinery.

After a few months, Daddy returned to St Lucia and enlisted in the army (British West Indian Regiment in World War II). Daddy and his best friend, Conrad La Force (Hilary La Force’s uncle; Hilary’s father was Daniel) went to enroll in the military together. They had to go to Vigie at 5AM for the test. Conrad failed the test but Dad passed. Conrad went to Brazil and died there in a boat wreck. This was a hard blow because Conrad was so close to Dad that he would fight for Dad against his own brother. In the army, Dad first worked as a gunner in the Artillery (different from the infantry). He studied a lot and eventually became an instructor (he had earlier received proficiency pay), and was promoted to a Bombadier after he passed the CRA (Coastal Royal Artillery) exam. With this promotion, he was a non-comissioned officer. In the army, Dad also took a preliminary course in surveying (using a depression range finder to measure distances).

When the war ended, he was discharged. Dad worked briefly as a foreman at a quarry in Bisee (Union), where they were collecting rocks to extend the Vigie airport runway. Ex-servicemen got priority to go to work in the oil industry in Aruba. A candidate had to weigh 140 lbs to qualify. Dad had a friend (Victor Bouselay) who did not weigh enough, but he melted lead and put it in his shoes so that he reached the minimum weight. Dad went to Aruba and worked in various jobs at the Largo Oil Refinery. While in Aruba, Daddy attended a series of evangelistic meetings where a Pastor R. Klingbeil was preaching. He remembers the handbill for the first night’s service that he attended. The subject was “Life in other Worlds”. At the end of the meetings, he was baptized by Pastor Klingbeil and became an Adventist. A friend from Grenada, Bolio, who worked with Dad and also became an SDA.

At the SDA Church in Aruba, he met his wife, Zenobia Alberta Wilson and they got married in 1949. Soon after becoming an SDA, he heard a presentation about how books, tracts, and magazines could be used to share the gospel with others. With no training, he started to work part-time selling religious, health, and children’s books door-to-door. Dad moved back home to St Lucia in 1950 (with his pregnant wife), and their first child, Samuel, was born at Victoria hospital that year. Dad tried to work selling religious books in St. Lucia but there was little support for such work in St Lucia and he returned to Aruba. For the next 9 years, Daddy worked full-time selling religious printed materials in Aruba. He had a memorable trip, in 1953, when he was selected by the Netherlands Antilles Mission of SDA to be a delegate to attend a youth congress in San Francisco, California.

In 1959, Daddy returned to St Lucia (with wife and 5 children) and became active as an elder with the Castries SDA church, located at Water Works road. He worked briefly as a foreman for his cousin Evans La Force (a building contractor). His next job was working for the accounting firm, De Gale and Rapier (it later merged into Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co), where he cleared goods from the customs for their clients. This experience in the customs brokerage eventually led him to start his own business called Williams Customs Service, which cleared goods from the customs and did shipping.

Daddy’s Contribution to the SDA Church in St Lucia

Regardless of his paid employment, Daddy always devoted considerable time, energy and effort in serving others and supporting the ministry of the SDA church in St Lucia. As an elder at the Castries church, he was actively involved in giving Bible Studies and preaching on Sabbath, Sunday evening or Wednesday night. There was usually only one SDA pastor or two in St Lucia in those days and as an active lay-person, he was very involved in nurturing small churches and companies. For example, from time to time, he would go to Millet, at the request of Brother Toussaint to preach for the church there. During the 1960s, there was a small group of Adventist members that were organized as a company in Gros Islet. They had no church building but met in brother Tephan’s shop.

Daddy and a few others from the Castries church were assigned to work with the Gros Islet group. He would travel to Gros Islet regularly to preach. He remembers one Wednesday night when he rode a bicycle from Castries to Gros Islet to conduct prayer meeting. Similarly, when the church started in Marisule, he was very actively involved as a leader with that group. His friend, Brother Henrius had donated the land to start the Marisule church and Dr. Robertson (an SDA dentist) had supplied lumber to build the benches. He also played a leadership role in the early days of the Bocage church. After Brother Lamontagne had held a crusade in Bocage, a company was formed and they met in a shed at the back of a house. Daddy started to work with them, eventually making some of his family land available to give the Bocage church a permanent home. Daddy was also involved with some of the business dealings of the SDA church in St Lucia and worked from time to time with John Compton who for many years was the lawyer for the SDA church. Dad negotiated the sale of the old wooden Castries church on Water Works road. He along with Pastor Hodge negotiated with JQ Charles to buy the land where the St Lucia SDA Academy is now located.

He also negotiated with Marcel Albert to use a large lot that he owned so that the Adventist church could pitch a large tent to hold a series of evangelistic meetings. Mr Albert told Dad that he was happy to let the Adventists use his land because he had been a patient of Dr. Robertson and had received good dental care. This crusade was led by two Adventists from the U.S.– Evangelist Rainey and internationally known singer “Little Richard”. When this series of meeting were over, hundreds of new believers were organized into the new Maranatha SDA church and Daddy was asked to be the first elder of this new group. He has many good memories of working with the young people of the Maranatha church.

Daddy’s Other Passions

Daddy was a life-long learner. Throughout his life, he took several correspondence courses in topics ranging from electronics and auto mechanics to theology. He even took a correspondence course in Greek. Unlike his children, he was a jack of all trades and did much of the construction on his family home at Morne Du Don.

Daddy also enjoyed working as a farmer. At Morne Du Don, there was a lot of mango trees, coconut trees, cocoa, breadfruit. There were also soursop trees, sour oranges, tamarind, guava, custard apple, plums, etc. etc. Daddy planted yams and dasheen and Tania. But Daddy loved bananas best of all. At one point, Daddy had 3 fields of bananas that he cultivated for export (first filed, second field and landslide). His sons would have to take bananas to Cousin George’s (George La Force) shed, before they went to school, where the bunches of bananas would be weighed and packaged for export. Daddy taught his children how to be resourceful in using the bounties of nature. When he had men cut down trees to make a pasture, he taught us how make a coal pit and turn that wood into coal. He taught us how to take the cocoa beans and dry them and roast them to make cocoa sticks for our cocoa tea. He taught us how to save the cream after you boiled milk and turn a jar of cream into butter. And Daddy loved of animals – we had dogs, many cats, chickens, turkeys, sheep and goats. But Daddy especially loved cows, which explained why we had two milking cows most of the years while we were growing up. And after we had worship in the morning, some of us had to milk the cows, some had to go cut grass for the cows and then we had to drop off bottles of milk to neighbors down Morne du Don rd on our way to school. Daddy loved animals so much that as a very young boy, long before vegetarianism was in vogue, he stopped eating meat. He lived close to a butcher shop and his nature recoiled at the brutal slaughter of animals. And he made a commitment that he would eat no meat or poultry, he only ate fish. A remarkable decision for an adolescent to make in the 1930s.

After retirement, Daddy eventually migrated to the U.S. but rotated regularly from Minneapolis, to St. Lucia, to Tennessee, to Michigan and Boston. In his latter years he also had a very active telephone ministry. He would call people in St Lucia (thank God for Magic Jack) and across the U.S. – providing spiritual encouragement and support to many.

Compiled by his son: Dr. David Williams

After completing the Anglican Primary School in Castries, he worked at multiple jobs before enlisting in the army (the British West Indian Regiment during World War II). He was a gunner in the Artillery and was promoted to a Bombadier and became a non-commissioned officer and an instructor. After the war, he traveled to Aruba and worked at various jobs at the Largo Oil Refinery. While in Aruba he attended an evangelistic meeting and became a Seventh-day Adventist (SDA). He got married in Aruba to Zenobia Wilson, his wife for 63 years who preceded him in death in 2012.

For many years in Aruba, he worked full-time as a credentialed literature evangelist for the Netherlands Antilles Mission. He also served as an elder and in other capacities at the San Nicolas SDA church. In 1953, he was selected as a delegate to attend the Pan-American Youth Congress in San Francisco, California. He returned to St Lucia in 1959 and worked as a foreman for a building contractor and as a customs broker for the accounting firm, De Gale and Rapier. He eventually started his own business, Williams Customs Service, which cleared goods from the customs and did shipping.

However, regardless of what he was doing to earn a living, he always devoted considerable time, energy and effort in ministering to others. As an elder, and often time first elder, at the Castries church, he was actively involved in preaching on Sabbath, Sunday evening or Wednesday night. He was also very committed to giving Bible Studies to persons who were interested in learning more about God’s word and he led many souls to the Lord. There was usually only one SDA pastor or two for the more than a dozen churches in St Lucia in those days and as an active lay-person, he was heavily involved in nurturing small churches and companies. He worked with the churches in Millet, Gros Islet, Marisule and Bocage. When a new church was started in Castries (the Maranatha SDA church), after a successful series of meetings led by Evangelist Rainey and internationally known singer, Little Richard from the United States, he served as the first elder for this new group of believers. After he retired and moved to Minneapolis, he was actively involved with the Ebenezer Fellowship SDA church.

Another church that Rufus Williams worked faithfully in was the church in his own home. By precept and example, he and his loving wife taught the children that they raised in their home – Samuel, Mervin, Lena, David, Ruth and Pauline – the truths of the Bible. Before they started elementary school, he taught his children to read by having them learn to read the first chapter of the gospel of John. In the Williams home, every day began and ended with family worship and prayer.

His surviving children are Hartley Grassie of Castries, St Lucia, Mervin (and Naula) Williams of Marisule, St Lucia, Dr. Lena Williams (and Dr. Lael) Caesar of Loyola University, Baltimore, USA, Dr David (and Opal) Williams of Harvard University, Boston, USA, and Dr. Ruth WilliamsMorris of Southern Adventist University, Collegedale, TN, USA. He was preceded in death by his son Samuel Williams in 2007.

Also left to mourn are two nephews and their families: Dr. McDonald Chase of Castries, Tony Maughn of Barbados; his brother-in-law James (and Mercelina) Wilson of Aruba; Pauline Bailey and family of New York; Vernice Williams of Canada; 16 grandchildren: Richard Williams, Nicholas Williams, and Tamara Williams of Canada; Rene (and Natasha) Williams of Antigua, Christopher Williams, Leandra Williams, Monique Anthony George and Candy Noel of St. Lucia. In the USA, Lloyd Caesar and La Vonne Caesar, Delia Williams, Alysia Williams, and Shandelle Williams, Hendri Morris, Kahlilia (and Jonathan) Blanco, and Bernard Junior. Four great grandchildren, Giovani, Joachim and Malaika George, and Leslie Williams. Many nieces and nephews and their families, including Angela Ferero of Curacao, Shirley Tuitt and Orlando Dinzey of Aruba, Brenda Wilson of Los Angeles, Zenobia Rombley, Esther Dinzey, Calvin Dinzey of St. Maarten, Rita Wilson, Miranda Henry, and Mercedes Dinzey of the Netherlands and many other relatives and friends, including the LaForce family of Morne du Don and the Dupres family of Micoud.

Rufus Williams will always be remembered as a man of integrity, a friend and father to many, a spiritual counselor and teacher, and a man of deep faith, prayer and great spiritual insight.

The funeral service for the late Rufus Williams was held on Wednesday, January 1 at 2:00pm at the Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Church, 4829 College Dr E, Collegedale, TN 37315.

Obituary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At8dqqqMc_g