Obituaries

Howard Williams

Howard Williams, a nearly 60-year resident of Oxnard and a fixture in the produce business for decades, died Wednesday, June 6, 2012 in San Diego. He was 90.

James Howard Williams was born October 1, 1921 in Bald Knob, Arkansas, a son of Robert and Beulah Williams. Following the death of his father at a young age, Mr. Williams was raised in the Masonic Home in Batesville, Arkansas. Mr. Williams attended Batesville High School, playing quarterback for the football team.

After graduating from high school, Mr. Williams attended John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, where he met his future wife, Betty Fugate of Santa Paula. (Miss Fugate, the daughter of Lee and Ruth Fugate, was a 1939 graduate of Santa Paula High School.)

Mr. Williams enlisted in the U.S. Navy in the summer of 1941 and was stationed on the USS Sculpin, a fleet submarine, in the Philippines at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He sailed with the Sculpin on six war patrols before his appointment as an aviation cadet in 1943. Following flight training, he served as a Naval Aviator, co-piloting PBM Mariner seaplanes in the Philippines, China, and Japan. Mr. Williams had the distinctions of serving on active duty for the entire duration of the United States’ involvement in World War II, and of earning both the Submarine Warfare Insignia (“dolphins”) and the Naval Aviation Pilot badge (“wings”).

After leaving the Navy in 1946, Mr. Williams settled with his wife in the Los Angeles area. He earned his accounting degree from Woodbury College in Los Angeles and worked for the May Co. and the Texas Oil Co.

In the mid-1950s, he was hired as a bookkeeper by Tom Katsuda, an Oxnard celery grower. Mr. Williams later was office manager and part owner of United Celery Growers, which was affiliated with Oxnard Celery Distributors.

Mr. Williams was an avid golfer and bowler and was a longtime member of the Nisei League at Wagon Wheel Bowl. His family considered him a master of the barbecue grill, and his outdoor cooking skills complemented his wife’s indoor culinary skills.

Mr. Williams was preceded in death by his parents; his wife of 66 years, Mary Elizabeth Williams; and his siblings, Robert Williams, Wilma Mehaffey, Billy Williams and Juanita McCormack.

Survivors include a daughter, Cynthia Haney of San Diego; sons Kelly Williams (Meg) of Morgan Hill, California, and Scott Williams (Brenda) of Chicago; granddaughter Erin Williams of Laurel, Maryland; grandson Christopher Williams of Bedford, Texas; and several nieces and nephews.

Mr. Williams’ ashes will be buried at sea by the U.S. Navy. Memorial contributions may be made to the Oxnard Friends of the Library Foundation.

The poem “High Flight,” by fellow aviator John Gillespie Magee Jr., was a favorite of Mr. Williams:

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

of sun-split clouds, - and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung