Donald L Williams | obituaries

Donald (Don) Leicester Williams died peacefully in McKinleyville, Calif., on Nov. 15, 2021.

He was born in Berkeley, Calif., on Sept. 30, 1933, to Leicester (Les) and Katherine (Kay) Williams.

For most of his childhood in Berkeley, Don had a paper route. He was very social and became friends with most of the people along his route; this is where his interest in collecting everything began, especially collectible firearms. Several people gave him guns and he began a lifelong enjoyment in buying, selling, bartering and collecting antique Remington firearms.

Every summer he and his bright, athletic sister Ginger would accompany their parents to the family cabin at Strawberry (near Lake Tahoe) for a summer in the scouts; it was here that he picked up his love of fly fishing, fly tying and the great outdoors. Years later, he and his wife Kit enjoyed crawling on their hands and knees to the banks of meadow streams to cast flies for the wary trout while camping in the mountains.

In his early twenties he began working at Camp Trinity as a summer camp counselor teaching woodworking and jewelry making. Don became lifelong friends with Grover and Erma Gates, returning there throughout his adult life and eventually, to settle in Hyampom with his family.

While in the military, he spent most of his time stationed in California, working in the pathology laboratory. He found the practice of medicine to be routine, too cookbook style for him, but was fascinated by the human mind. He enrolled in San Francisco State where, after years of studying a wide variety of subjects, the dean asked him to please choose a subject to major in and he chose psychology. While in the psychology master’s program, he met Kit Crosby who was also receiving a master’s degree in psychology, and they married several years later.

Don received a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Texas at Austin, during which time he and Kit had three children. The family would return to Camp Trinity every summer where Don and Kit worked as camp counselors. After Don earned his Ph.D. in psychology, the family moved to Hyampom and bought Olsen Creek Ranch (now Meredith Vineyards) where they raised their three children and restored the old homestead. Don worked as the county psychologist, spending the last two years as the director of Trinity County Mental Health until he retired. Many still refer to him fondly as “Dr. Don.”

Don had an incredible amount of energy and ambition; he was interested in everything, and was a passionate, active participant in the betterment of the communities in Trinity County. He didn’t shy away from this commitment, be it serving on the board of directors for agencies or community-based organizations, initiating programs and services for those in need, or swinging a hammer to help construct many buildings for all these services. His commitment to community ran deep.

Don was always willing to help community members with projects or advancing their trade, making not only his tools and equipment available but also sharing room to work, and sharing his many skills. Don was a quintessential “Jack-of-all-trades, yet master of none,” a phrase he would humorously use to describe himself. He loved to share the wealth and breadth of his knowledge with others, and to bring whatever he envisioned into something tangible. Don created many things, from jewelry to furniture to sculptures to buildings to outdoor spaces defined by rock work and so much more, all of which are living legacies of his love and passion for life and those who were in his life.

Dad has three daughters, one son, an adopted daughter, three grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. He has many cousins ​​and numerous close friends, too many to count. We will have an outdoor party for him in the early spring.

Memorial donations can be made through voluntarily contributing your time and efforts to a community-based organization of your choice, keeping Dad’s spirit and love alive with your hands and through your contributions just as he did in life.