On Sunday, August 4, 2024, George " Tom" Williams passed away at the age of 96. He was born on January 2, 1928 to the late Horace and Ida Louise Williams in Birmingham, Alabama. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1946. While on assignment at Elgin Field Florida, he installed and maintained one of the first radio, telephone and teletype communications systems. While serving in the 614 Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron (AC&W) at Fort Schafter in Oahu, Hawaii, he lived with 16 men, 3 dogs and a cat on the peak of Mt. Kaala where he provided communications and direction finding to area aircraft. George attained the rank of Sergeant and was honorably discharged in 1949.

While attending Birmingham Southern College ( BSC) in 1951, he became the president of the LAMDA CHI ALPHA fraternity where he met the love of his life and future wife Rosa Mae Townsend. He transferred to Auburn University in 1953 and in 1954, he married Rosa and shared a loving marriage which spanned 70 years.

After being hired by PHILCO, he was sent to the Fort Bliss Army Air Defense School where he provided instruction to U.S. Army and Nato officers in electronics and Nike Hercules Guided Missile Anti- Aircraft Systems maintenance and operations. After assignment on Lackland Airforce Base in San Antonio, Tx, He and Rosa moved to Palo Alto, California where he taught at the PHILCO Western Development Facility.

George became a father to 2 sons, Tom Jr. and Bobby Williams and thru the years of 1964 until 1990, he enjoyed a rewarding career with NASA and contributed to the historical Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs among other projects. As a Chief Operations Engineer of the Shuttle Payload, he acted as an Instrumentation Tracking Controller ( CCAT) on numerous missions.

At retirement, George "Tom" was honored with a plaque for his " Outstanding Contributions To Manned Space Flight Operations at Johnson Space Center.

In retirement, " Tom" enjoyed annual family vacations with his brothers Earl and Bob and sister Mimi along with coordinating the annual reunion picnics with his buddies from NASA.

Tom enjoyed a love of baseball and the Houston Astros along with his wife Rosa.

He is survived by his sister Mimi Cook, sons Tom Jr. and Robert Williams along with grand children Nicolas, Ivy and Cameron Williams and Joe Ann Schatte.

He will be dearly missed and fondly remembered by all who knew and loved him.