Mr. Curtis Chandler Williams III

Born on the 30th of September 1926, in New York City, New York, he was the child of the late Curtis C. Williams, Jr, and Grethe Cramer Williams. In his early life he was schooled in New Orleans and Morgantown, West Virgina, where his father was a professor of law. Mr. Williams graduated Cum Laude from Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia in 1943 and graduated with honors from Yale University in 1948, where he was elected to the engineering honor society Tau Beta Pi. While at Yale, he served as an instructor in the Navy from 1943 to 1944. In 1953 he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering in 1950 and a Doctor of Science degree in 1953.

On the 13th of August 1955, he married Elizabeth Ellis Quimby, to whom he was married until her death on the 19th of January 1997. He is survived by his wife Barbara Bullock Graham, whom he married on the 22nd of January 2000.

He lived in Berkeley, California, New York City, Darien, Connecticut, St. Louis, Missouri, and Houston, Texas. He worked at Shell Oil Company as a chemical engineer and retired after more than 41 years in 1995. From 1971 to 1974, Curtis managed the design and construction of the Westhollow Research Center for the Shell Development Company in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Williams joined Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in the late 90’s and became very active from the start. He took an interest in Global Missions at MDPC and went on many mission trips to Mexico, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. He has sponsored several children in Guatemala through the organization Common Hope. His final mission trip was to Nairobi, Kenya where MDPC helped build an amphitheater at a Presbyterian Church Camp.

Curtis was a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He was also a member of the American Petroleum Institute, for whom he chaired a subcommittee that produced the API Handbook on Technical Data, and he was a member of the research honorary society Sigma Xi. He was also a member of the American Chemical Society for more than fifty years and is a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas.

In addition to his loving wife Barbara, Curtis is survived by his son, Richard Quimby Williams and his wife LaVern of Burlington, Vermont; his daughter Susan Williams Darrow and her husband Doug of Houston, Texas; his stepdaughter Mary Margaret Graham and her partner Sheree of Austin, Texas; his stepson John Lawrence Graham and his wife Michelle; and grandsons John Wendall and Rome Graham, of Abu Dhabi, UAE.

A memorial service, celebrating Curtis’ life, is to be conducted at three o’clock in the afternoon on Friday, the 4th of February, in the Chapel of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, 11612 Memorial Drive in Houston, where Deborah Cooper, Parish Associate, is to officiate.

In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests with gratitude that memorial contributions in Curtis’ name be directed to the Alzeimer’s Association, PO Box 96011, Washington, DC 20090-6011; or to the charity of one’s choice.