James S. Williams '52 died May 21, 2010.
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JAMES S. WILLIAMS ’52
Jim Williams passed away peacefully on May 21, 2010. Jim graduated from Deerfield. At Amherst, he played soccer, lacrosse and golf and was captain of the golf team for all four years. In 1958 Jim won the golf championship at the Longmeadow (Mass.) Country Club. Ed Bruning ’52 remembers that Jim convinced Ed to go to Amherst.
He was the goalie for the soccer team. In his senior year, the Amherst team won eight of nine games including wins over Harvard and Williams. That season Jim had six shutouts, including one over Williams, with the Jeffs winning, 2-0.
After teaching English and coaching football at Suffield Academy for seven years, Jim started a business, The Williams Inference Service, which serves the investment community by drawing inferences from current developments which can then be transformed into investment ideas. In 1990, Barron’s described Jim as a “One-Man Think Tank.” Win Hindle ’52 had lunch with Jim about six weeks before he passed away. Win described the business as follows: “His service was to cull from writings all over the world little bits of information (gathered by Jim and a cadre of worldwide readers that he employed) that put together an ‘inference’ of things to come in the future.” The business continues in operation. Jim told Win that he sold his investments in the summer of 2008, when the averages were about 20 percent above the levels of July 2010.
Jim leaves a daughter, Lee Williams; a son, James B. Williams; and three granddaughters. A member of Psi Upsilon, he is remembered as friendly, serious-minded and talented. Willie Wilson ’52 and Jim Gilligan ’52 roomed with Jim at Psi U, and Willie said there was never a cross word among them. Jim was thoughtful and perceptive. He will be missed by all who knew him.
—Jim Howard ’52