Husband of Norfolk's city manager dies after lengthy illness

NORFOLK

Drew Williams told his wife, Norfolk City Manager Regina V.K. Williams, that he planned to swing by City Hall.

However, he wasn’t going to visit Williams, who at the time was in her second year on the job, but to attend the clerks’ Christmas party.

“I didn’t even know the clerks’ office was having a Christmas party,” she said.

Her husband was the kind of person who befriended the owners of his favorite takeout place, allowed his children’s friends to move into his home, and learned about new cities from talking to bus drivers.

He enjoyed a 25-year career in human resources, was an avid tennis player, and proudly supported his wife.

Drew Williams died early Friday after a year long battle with diverticulitis. He was 66.

“He could talk to anybody,” said Regina Williams, his wife of nearly 40 years, “and they all felt comfortable with him.”

One of 11 children, Drew Williams grew up in Detroit with a passion for tennis. He met Arthur Ashe playing in a youth league, and the two remained lifelong friends.

Williams attended North Carolina’s Johnson C. Smith University on an athletic scholarship, but his studies were interrupted when he was drafted to serve in Vietnam.

After returning, he enrolled in Eastern Michigan University, where he earned a degree and met his future wife. She tried to set him up with a friend. Instead, they were married six months later.

“He had these beautiful green-hazel eyes,” Regina Williams said. “He was just this warm person.”

As his wife built her career in public service, Drew Williams made sure she and their three children were taken care of.

“He was the rock in our family,” said son Michael Williams.

Regina Williams’ work took the couple from Michigan to Richmond and San Jose, Calif., before coming to Norfolk in 1999.

Here, Drew Williams attended City Council meetings and drove his wife home, answered phone calls on Sunday or in the middle of the night, and helped her withstand criticism.

“He was very proud of her and her accomplishments,” said Clyde Clark, who attended college with the couple’s daughter, Traci Massie. “I think he was an integral part of it.”

In recent years, Drew Williams attended Norfolk’s Citizens Police Academy and promised to help Chief Bruce P. Marquis with his tennis game.

“He just brought energy to those around him,” Marquis said.

Williams was hospitalized in December 2006 with a severe infection of the colon. Over the last year, he was treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, and his wife temporarily relinquished some of her city manager responsibilities to be by his side. He returned to Norfolk in September.

Regina Williams said she is thankful for the p ast year when her husband helped her say goodbye.

“His sickness was a final gift,” she said. “Rather than just a sudden death, it was one where he could show me that I can go on without him.”

Funeral arrangements are being made. Williams hopes to establish a scholarship in her husband’s name at Johnson C. Smith University.

 Amy Jeter, (757) 446-2730, amy.jeter@pilotonline.com