Life in Your Years

In September, I shared memories about people who made a difference in my life and told you how, through Spark, I hoped to pay forward the kindness and support those people had given me.

One of the people I mentioned in that blog entry was the Honorable Glen M. Williams, United States District Judge for the Western District of Virginia.   Judge Williams gave me the privilege of serving as a judicial intern in his chambers in 1995.  It was my first real legal job and I hadn't even attended my first day of law school.   During my senior year of college, I wrote my joint English/pre-law honors thesis on some of Judge Williams's many amazing experiences.  This project afforded me the opportunity to spend a year interviewing a man who would spend 34 years on the federal bench.  A man who was decorated for action in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Mediterranean theaters of war, who participated in the 1944 Allied Invasion of Southern France.    Those who knew Judge Williams understand that I spent a year listening to the one of the best storytellers in the world tell me stories I wouldn't have believed had I not known the source to be trustworthy.

For example, Judge Williams left school and enlisted in the Navy the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  As a Naval officer trainee at Columbia University in New York City, Judge Williams roomed with Herman Wouk, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Caine Mutiny, about life aboard a World War II minesweeper.  According to Judge Williams, he is one of the characters in Wouk's novel.

Judge Williams's recount of his rocky road to nomination to the federal bench was nothing short of fascinating.  He knew exactly how to weave a tale and appreciated that truth was, truly, stranger than fiction.

It was only years after my time spent with Judge Williams that I truly understood how remarkable was my  experience.

I learned from a friend today that Judge Williams died this weekend at age 92.   Abraham Lincoln said:  "In the end, it's not the years in your life that count.  It's the life in your years."   Judge Williams was fortunate to celebrate many years of a live well lived, and I am fortunate to have known him.

To learn more about the life of Judge Williams, click here:

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2012/nov/06/tdmet04-retired-federal-judge-glen-m-williams-dies-ar-2339668/

or here:

http://www.thecoalfieldprogress.com/view/friends_fans_followers/20722735/article-Williams-known-as-sympathetic--sensible?listener=not_free&instance=free_article