David Howard Williams

David Howard Williams was born in Oneida, NY, and was raised in Queens. He earned Bachelors and Masters degrees at Lafayette College and Boston University, where he was a Lowell Institute Scholar. He was also a graduate of the National War College.

He began his broadcasting career with WGBH-TV in Boston while in graduate school, and then moved on for a year at ABC Radio in New York. Mr. Williams was one of America’s first Peace Corps Volunteers, serving as a high school teacher in Ethiopia from 1962 to 1964. Following the Peace Corps, he worked in Africa for an international religious run radio network as a newsman. In 1966, he began a long career with Voice of America, serving as a senior editor in Washington and then four years each as Bureau Chief in Nairobi and London. Some of his more exciting stories included covering Uganda under Idi Amin and Iran during the revolution. He also broke world stories such as the Ethiopian drought in 1973 and the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie the following year. Mr. Williams was Chief of the VOA’s Africa Division in the latter half of the 1980s. During a visit to Africa at this time, Mr. Williams envisioned that newly installed embassy satellite dishes which provided TV programs for local broadcast had subcarriers that could be used for VOA radio transmissions. This revolutionized the way VOA, which had used shortwave or surface shipping, could provide material faster with greater quality to local radio stations. Another innovation was his establishment of the first sports desk in the VOA newsroom. Late in his career Mr. Williams spent two years in the diplomatic service as US Consul in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Mr. Williams loved classical music and the theatre. As a boy, he gave piano recitals at New York’s Carnegie and Steinway Halls and entered Manhattan’s High School of Music and Art (now LaGuardia HS) on Piano, where he also studied Voice. In Ethiopia, he conducted the International Choral Society for four seasons. Mr. Williams played in scores of operatic and theatrical productions in the Washington area, mostly after he had retired. These included creating 18 Gilbert and Sullivan roles, primarily with the Washington Savoyards, the Victorian Lyric Opera, and at the Kennedy Center. A Bass/Baritone, he spent six seasons with the Washington Concert Opera Chorus, and was a principal for two decades with the Vienna Light Opera. Mr. Williams performed roles with Opera International, Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia, and various area theatrical groups. He was a soloist at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church for five decades, and served that congregation as an Elder. His favorite roles were Sir Roderic (Ruddigore) with the Savoyards, Pooh Bah (Mikado) with Victorian Lyric Opera, and Alfred P. Doolittle (My Fair Lady) with the Reston Players.

Mr. Williams enjoyed numerous athletic activities and led an expedition to the summit of Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro in 1965. Tennis was his primary sport, as he captained the Lafayette College Varsity team and won tournaments on three continents. These included the Ethiopian National Singles and Doubles championships, the Washington Open Senior Singles, and with his wife, the Washington Century Mixed Doubles and the Athens City (Ga.) mixed titles.

He is survived by his beloved wife Helen; his son the Rev. Dr. David G. Williams and daughter-in-law Rachel Mosher-Williams of Annandale, VA; his son Dr. Daniel Williams of Montreal; two grandsons, Samuel August Williams and Elijah Daniel Williams; and his niece Jennifer Wallis-Eifert.

Services will be held at

New York Avenue Presbyterian Church

1313 New York Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20005

October 14, 2023, 11 AM