C. Joseph Williams '74

Alumni Achievement Award 2015
Manager-Community Relations, Oklahoma Natural Gas
Tulsa, OK

Joe Williams is a former Tulsa City Councilman. He was first elected to Council District 1 in March 1994 and served five terms before deciding not to seek re-election and stepping down from his post in 2004. During his tenure, Mr. Williams was elected by his Council peers in 1997 to serve as Council Chairman, becoming the first African-American in Tulsa history to hold that position.
As a City Councilman, Mr. Williams led the effort for economic revitalization in North Tulsa working directly with the North Pointe Office Complex Development; Crestview Senior Citizen Community Development; Lansing Park expansion, which includes the new location for the Morton Health Center; Country Club Plaza Residential Community Development; the new Booker T. Washington High School; and the Pine and Peoria Redevelopment Initiative, which includes a grocery store and small businesses. He authored the legislation creating the City of Tulsa Youth Council, which trains and develops youth leadership and provides youth with a voice in city government. As councilor, Mr. Williams was also a member of the Leadership Team for the National League of Cities, the largest political organization in the nation, and served as chairman of the Human Development Policy and Steering Committees. He was also assistant director of Region 11 serving Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas, for the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials.

Before his election to the City Council, Mr. Williams was president of the Tulsa branch of the NAACP from 1989 to 1991 and first vice president of the State of Oklahoma chapter of the NAACP from 1989 to 1994. He has served as a board member of the Tulsa Area United Way, Leadership Tulsa, and the Tulsa Area Community Service Council. Mr. Williams has also served as co-chair of the City of Tulsa Home Ownership Coalition, board commissioner for the Tulsa Housing Authority, board member of the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Society, board member of the North Tulsa Heritage Foundation, and an advisory board member of the Tulsa Day Center for the Homeless. He has been involved with local education issues serving as a board member of the Deborah Brown Community School, Junior Achievement Advisor at Booker T. Washington and Nathan Hale High Schools, Tulsa Public Schools Community Advisory Committee, McLain High School Advisory Committee, and Carver Middle School Foundation Board of Trustees. He is co-founder and inaugural president of The 100 Black Men of Tulsa - a youth mentoring and development organization, which is affiliated with The 100 Black Men of America, an advisory board member for the Child Abuse Network and member of Leadership Oklahoma.

Because of Mr. Williams' dedication to his community, he has been the recipient of several prestigious awards including the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Society Keeping the Dream Alive Award, Tulsa Branch NAACP Freedom Award, Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry Human Rights Award, North Tulsa Heritage Foundation Image Builders Award, Christian Ministers Alliance Humanitarian Hall of Fame Award, Downtown Sertoma Club Service to Mankind Award, City of Tulsa Human Rights Department's Citizen of the Year Award, and Metropolitan Tulsa Urban League's Marion Taylor Community Service Award.

Mr. Williams graduated cum laude from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration. While an OU student, Mr. Williams was a member of Beta Gamma Sigma (National Business Honor Society) and on the National Dean's List of Outstanding College Students. He was also a letterman on the OU varsity track team, which won both the 1977 and 1978 Big Eight Conference Outdoor Track Championships.

Mr. Williams and his wife, Kathy, have three children and four grandchildren.
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Casady School is an independent, co-educational, college preparatory, Episcopal day school serving students in pre-k-12. Educating Mind, Body, and Spirit.
Casady School is a PreK-12, independent, college preparatory Episcopal day school committed to deeper-level learning. Casady School welcomes a student body that reflects the diversity of the world around us and therefore does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, nationality, or ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, athletics, and other school-administered programs generally accorded or made available to students at the School.