Norman Thomas Williams

N. Thomas (“Tom”) Williams died peacefully in his home Wednesday, August 16, 2023. Tom was born on Bastille Day, July 14, 1933 as the only child of the late Lucille and Norman Williams. He is preceded in death by his wife of 58 years, Alice McSpadden Williams, who passed away November 16, 2019. Tom is survived by his son, Thomas D. Williams of Washington, DC (Rhonda); his daughter, Lathrop Williams Ford of Sarasota, FL (Andrew); Thomas’ daughter Rhian; and Lathrop’s children, Hunter and Andrew.

Tom attended Vanderbilt University on a U.S. Naval Institute Holloway Plan Scholarship and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Upon graduation with a degree in Civil Engineering, he entered the U.S. Navy as an Ensign and served for 3 years. He served on the USS Peregrine for one year in Key West then was reassigned to Charleston as Operations Officer on the Commodore’s Staff for a Division of 5 Mine Sweepers. Tom was discharged as a full Lieutenant and entered Georgia Tech for a master’s degree in Civil Engineering. Following receipt of his master’s degree, Tom joined Rust Engineering doing design work on large industrial plants and mills including paper and cement products. After marrying Alice, Tom was assigned to head up the Coppè Rust office in Brussels, Belgium to service U.S. firms entering the Common Market. Two years later, they moved to London, England for 1 year in the same position. In those 3 years Tom headed up and completed 5 major multimillion-dollar projects. Following several more years at Rust, he was promoted to Project Manager for the Pineville Kraft Mill in Louisiana and then joined Southern Natural Gas in Birmingham, AL to head up the Boise Southern linerboard and newsprint Mill project in DeRidder, LA. Tom served in various technical positions with Southern Natural Gas until the company furthered his education through the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. Major projects to close his career included the Liquified Natural Gas plant in Algeria and the Liquified re-gasification plant in Savannah, GA.

Tom’s community service included serving the Red Cross, Salvation Army, United Way, Advisory Committees at University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Alabama, over 10 years at the Birmingham Botanical Society as Treasurer and President, and Chairman of 3 UAB Conference Basketball Championship Tournaments for Coach Bartow.

Tom retired in 1991 from the positions of President of Southern Forest Products, Executive Vice President of Operations at Southern Natural Gas Company, and Vice President of Engineering at SONAT, Inc., the holding company.

Following retirement, Tom continued expedition travel abroad with Alice to more than 100 Countries.

A graveside service will be held at Elmwood Cemetery at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, August 22, 2023. Friends are invited to join the family at this service.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests friends make a donation to a charity of their choice in Tom’s memory.

Services are under the direction of Ridout's Valley Chapel (205-879-3401) in Homewood.