Senior Apartments to be Named in Honor of Celebrated Trial Lawyer and Alumnus

The College of the Holy Cross will officially name the Senior Apartments, the Edward Bennett Williams Hall, in honor of the legacy and generosity of the late Ed Williams ’41.  Agnes Williams and members of her family will be on campus to celebrate the occasion.

Weather permitting, the dedication will take place in front of the building on Saturday, April 26 at 3 p.m., and will be followed by a reception.  (In the event of rain, the dedication will take place inside.)  The 4:30 p.m. Mass in the Mary Chapel will be celebrated in Ed’s memory.

A celebrated trial lawyer and influential Washington insider, Williams was deeply committed to the Holy Cross mission and to the principles of Jesuit education.  He represented a litany of famous clients (and advised several U.S. presidents), while also serving on and eventually chairing the Holy Cross Board of Trustees until his death in 1988.  At the time of his death, he presided over the Washington law firm he founded, Williams & Connolly, and was the owner of the Baltimore Orioles professional baseball team. He had also been president of the Washington Redskins professional football team for 20 years.

Gifts from Williams’ widow, Agnes, also a former trustee, and other contributors also endowed the Holy Cross Edward Bennett Williams Fellows Program in 1997.  The program enables the College to hire faculty for their commitment to undergraduate teaching and to providing opportunities for the study of Catholic life, as well as for their interdisciplinary orientation toward issues of faith and reason.

Completed in 2003, Williams Hall is a five-story, 85,000-square foot building on lower campus, behind St. Joseph Chapel. The two-bedroom apartments (living room, dining area, and full kitchen) accommodate 244 seniors.  Amenities include study rooms on each floor, and a ground floor function room with a walk-out balcony overlooking the Worcester skyline.