John P. Williams Jr. ’63

John died peacefully June 22, 2019, after a brief illness. He was acclaimed in the Cincinnati region for a long and spectacular tenure as president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce. In 2017 he was named a Great Living Cincinnatian.

An adventurous and congenial leader who was highly respected within our class, he rowed on the heavyweight crew all four years, majored in religion, and was vice president of Cap & Gown, chairman of the Campus Fund Drive, a Chapel deacon, and a horseman in the Great Train Robbery at Princeton in 1963. After college John studied law at the University of Cincinnati and joined Taft, Stettinius & Hollister before commanding a rifle company in Vietnam, receiving a Bronze Star with Combat V and two Purple Hearts, and finishing as aide-de-camp to the commanding general of Camp Pendleton.

He rejoined Taft before running the Chamber from 1984 to 2001. John’s talent for listening carefully and forging collaboration helped create two new stadiums and a revamped riverfront, helped bring in Toyota’s North American manufacturing headquarters, and saved two of Cincinnati’s signature events, Oktoberfest and Taste of Cincinnati, by taking them under the Chamber’s umbrella.

Surviving are his wife, Francie; five siblings; and 41 nieces and nephews.