Eddie Ray Williams

Clara Madge Williams. He loved the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah. Eddie was

fascinated with airplanes during his younger years and earned a private pilot license when he

was seventeen. He earned money to pay for the flying lessons working at the local A&P grocery

store where he was paid $1.25 an hour.

Eddie attended Virginia Tech; he received a BA degree

from Lynchburg College, a Masters degree from the Air Force Institute of Technology Dayton

Ohio, and a BA in Computer Science from Elon University, Elon North Carolina.

He joined the US Air Force June 1966. He served in several positions mainly as a

Communications-Electronics Maintenance Officer. He was assigned stateside tours in Lackland

AFB, TX; Keesler AFB MS; Selfridge AFB MI; Langley AFB, VA; Wright Patterson AFB, OH;

Warner-Robins AFB, GA and Griffiths AFB, Rome, NY. He was assigned overseas tours in San

Vito dei Normani Air Station, Brindisi, Italy and Clark Air Base, Republic of the Philippines. He

retired from the Air Force June 1986 in the rank of Major.

After the Air Force Eddie worked for the federal systems division of AT&T/Lucent

Technologies/General Dynamics on various government contracts.

He retired after 25 years in 2012 as a senior engineer.

Eddie was married to Geanette Williams (Geanette Jackson Adams Williams) for forty-five

years. Theirs was blended family. Geanette, a widow, had three sons; Eddie had a son and

daughter from a previous marriage. Eddie moved to Abbottswood senior living facility in

Greensboro, NC May 2022, upon the death of Geanette. He is survived by a brother Gene

Williams; son Norman Adams III and wife Kim; son Brian Adams and wife Debbie; son

Russell Adams and wife Angie; son Noah Williams and wife Joyce; daughter Tristan Williams and

wife Jeanne; eight grandchildren, and two great grandchildren.

Eddie was so selfless that he wrote his own obituary, to spare his children the pain. All of the

above was penned by him. What he didn’t do was toot his own horn. Eddie was a faithful son

and brother, a dedicated husband, and a loving and strong father. He taught people to see out

of others’ eyes and was always trying to help people better themselves. He touched the lives of

almost everyone he came into contact with, exuding goodness and compassion. Even as he

suffered and battled with pancreatic cancer, heart failure and Parkinson’s Disease, he was

always more concerned about the health and well-being of family and friends.

His battle was hard,

but he never complained. He passed in peace at 3:05 a.m. June 24th .

The world lost a great man, but Heaven gained a mighty angel