Born on May 1, 1902 at Rogers, Texas, George Guion Williams moved with his family to Houston in 1918 and attended Central High School. He entered Rice Institute in 1919 to study biology and English and graduated in 1923. Williams earned his Master's degree in English from Rice in 1925 and accepted an assistantship in English at New York University in 1927. He returned to Houston in 1928 to help with family matters. His hopes of returning to New York to obtain a doctorate in English were dashed by the Depression, so Williams began his 40-year teaching career at Rice in English literature and creative writing. He retired in 1968 and became a professor emeritus. Among his published works are Creative Writing for Advanced College Classes (1935), which remained in print for almost 40 years; The Blind Bull (1952) a novel that won first prize from the Texas Institute of Letters; Some of My Best Friends are Professors (1958); A New View of Chaucer (1965); and Guide to Literary London (1975). Some of the more notable students Williams helped influence include David Westheimer, William Goyen, Larry McMurtry, John Graves, James P. Miller and James Korges. Williams may be best known among his former students for sponsoring the Rice Writing Club.
While teaching English, Williams also cultivated his love for ornithology. He wrote numerous articles about birds for scientific journals and a book on bird migration that was published in 1961. He helped to establish the Houston Museum of Natural Science and served as the museums first president of their board of directors from 1948 to 1950. Williams married the former Marian Williams in 1930 and had two sons. He died December 1, 1999.
From the guide to the George G. Williams Papers MS 341., 1923-1983, bulk 1923-1964, (Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University, Houston, TX)
