Eugene "Gene" Williams Jr.

Eugene Williams Jr. passed away in Valley View Nursing Home on December 5, 2013 of pancreatic cancer. He was born June 3, 1935 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Eugene Williams Sr. of Fayettville, NC and Elizabeth Biggers Williams of Gastonia NC.

Eugene, lovingly called "Skip" from childhood, but who matured to simply "Gene" graduated from John Bartram High School in Philadelphia. He went on to earn a Master's degree in Administration with a focus on Organization Development and a minor in Counseling/Psychotherapy from Antioch University in 1981.

Gene joined the US Navy in 1953 and served as a Hospital Corpsman until he was honorably discharged from active duty in June 1956 as Hospital Corpsman third class.
He was a Certified Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor in the State of Pennsylvania and a recipient of the Dole-Nyswander Award for significant contribution to methadone maintenance treatment in the State of Pennsylvania. Gene worked for 40 years as a Mental Health Administrator in Philadelphia and was a former President and Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Assn. of Methadone Providers.

Gene married Juanita Tate in 1958 and had three children: Eugene, III, Mark Anthony and Noreen Elizabeth (Cookie) (McClendon). Gene was remarried to Denise Johnson in June 1990 and remained good friends with her after their divorce and until his death.

He moved to Montana in 2000, where he always wanted to be after spending some of his vacations hunting in the Bob Marshall wilderness. Not long after moving to Montana Gene joined Hamilton Alliance Church (now Canyon View Church) and was the first person to be baptized in that young church. His family says that Gene spent the happiest years of his life in the Bitterroot Valley.

Hobbies Gene enjoyed over the years included working out in the gym (boxing and racquetball), playing pool, photography, fishing, hunting, target shooting, reloading, writing articles for magazine publication as well as his own blog and, of course, writing his infamous and passionate newspaper editorials that could not be ignored by his political rivals.

Gene was a passionate, intelligent, funny and very interesting man who had many friends from all walks of life.

Gene is survived by his brother Ralph and nephew Kevin, son Mark, daughter Noreen, grandsons Lance, Eugene, IV, Cleavon and Emeka and granddaughters Kimberly, Noni, Manuela and Nyangi, granddaughter-in-law Cindy, great-grandchildren Journey, Nazir, Daron, Layla and Lance, Jr. as well as a loving church family and dear friends too numerous to name individually. His son Eugene, III preceded him in death.