Clarence Donald Williams II

Clarence Donald (Don) Williams, II, 80, passed away peacefully with family at his side on the afternoon of July 8, 2020, at Inwood Crossing Memory Care in Tomball, Texas, where he has resided since February.

Don was born September 12, 1939, in Houston, Texas, to Clarence Donald and Roselyn Marie (née Meyer) Williams. With the declaration of WWII in 1939, he was born into a world of great uncertainty. Despite this, his parents provided him and his sister an idyllic childhood growing up in Elgin and Austin, Texas. Don graduated from Travis High School in Austin and went on to attend the University of Texas at Austin. During his freshman year at The University of Texas, he had the grand fortune of meeting his future bride, Peggy Suzanne (née Voelkel), on a blind date in 1959 at The Continental Club in Austin while she was a junior at St. Mary’s Academy. They recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on April 1st.

After graduating high school, Don joined the United States Air Force Reserve in 1958 and remained active until 1966. He graduated from The University of Texas in 1965 with a Bachelor of Business Administration-Accounting degree. He worked many jobs to support his young family while at UT. It is most impressive that he passed all four sections of the CPA exam on his first attempt to become a Certified Public Accountant.

His accounting career spanned 50 years, 30 of which were in public accounting. His public accounting work was with Touche & Ross/Deloitte, Grant Thornton, and B.B. Watkins. He joined the Houston-based, privately-owned WEDGE Group, Inc. in 1978 where he was employed for seventeen years. In addition to being a part of the Executive Management team, he was particularly proud to be named President of Arrowhead at Vail in 1988 after its purchase by WEDGE in 1982, overseeing its sale to Beaver Creek in 1993. From 1995 until 2015 he provided financial advisory, tax and accounting services to small business owners in Houston and Austin as an independent contractor.

Don was a loving husband to Peggy and devoted father to their five sons. He umpired and coached little league games for his boys. He enjoyed camping and fishing - both in the Gulf of Mexico and in the lakes of Texas in his BassTracker boat. An avid outdoorsman, he enjoyed snow skiing, scuba diving, fishing, golfing and was a licensed pilot. The ever proud father of his five sons, when chastised once by a neighbor for having so many children, replied, “Our kids are going to be good people when they grow up and will contribute greatly to this world.” While in Houston, Don and Peggy were members of St. Jerome Catholic Church and then St. Cecilia Catholic Church. They raised their children in the Spring Branch area of Houston.

He is survived by his wife, Peggy Suzanne (née Voelkel), his five sons, Clarence (Clay) Donald, III of Oakland, CA; David Carlyle and wife, Terri, of Southlake, TX; Corey Damon and wife Stacie, of The Woodlands, TX; Oscar Eric and wife, Laurie Ann Taylor, of Magnolia, TX; and Garrett Lang and fiancée, Maria Combes of Houston, TX. He is survived by six grandchildren, Colton Lawrence, Nathaniel David and Samuel Clay (David); Maxwell Kurtis and Mason Li (Corey); and Emma Isabella (Garrett and 1st wife, Beth Wallin) and one step-grandson, Patrick Taylor Nielsen (Oscar). He is also survived by two nieces, Donna Hennig Gurosko of Arlington, TX and Jacque Hennig Godwin of Mansfield, TX. He was predeceased by his parents, Clarence and Roselyn and by his sister, Donlyn Marie Williams Hennig.

A service will be held at Cook-Walden/Forest Oaks Funeral Home and Memorial Park, 6300 W. William Cannon Drive, Austin, TX 78749, on Thursday, July 16th, at 9:00am. Visitation begins at 9:00am followed by a graveside service at 10:00am. Father Pat Coakley of their current church home, St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Austin, will preside.