Pelham’s early childhood experiences and the surrounding community environment did not provide a promising background or predictor of his future life. He was born in a very rural region of his southern home state, the last child of a very aged southern Black male farmer, during a time when the entire nation was still recovering from the Great Depression of the 1930s.

By the time he was two years old, tuberculosis and infantile paralysis dominated the American landscape. Approximately twenty percent of the U.S. population died or were seriously afflicted during that period, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt who suffered from his affliction and died in 1945.

His parents taught him that "Everyone is born for a purpose" and that

purpose may best be realized by the concern, honor, and respect one extends towards another, which became his life's guiding principal.

In his public position appointments, he managed directly and indirectly thousands of employees who provided services to millions of people daily. In his business and entrepreneurship he employed personnel providing consultant services for projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars. His guide, with honor to his parents, was to "Be mindful and supportive of the people who are doing the work and diligently seek to exceed the expectations of those who are being served".

It may be that his attempts to "hold true to" these guiding principles have enabled him to reach this 90th-year milestone in good health. Whether this is true or not, he continues to plead with the "Great Spirit of the Universe" to grant him continued good health and earthly existence for another "score or so".

On May 8, 1935, in a rural area near Fairfield, Florida, Pelham Clyde Williams entered the world as the youngest of nine children to Anna Adams and Henry Williams. His birth was itself a marvel—his mother was 44, and his father, an astonishing 71. Though surrounded by a large family, Pelham grew up more like an only child, the only boy and his siblings being much older. But in that solitude, he developed a strong sense of self, discipline, and imagination that would carry him through life.

Fairfield was farmland country, and unlike many families in their community, the Williamses owned their land—passed down from Pelham’s maternal grandparents from the 1870s. While some families labored as sharecroppers, Pelham worked his family’s farm, raising livestock, planting crops, and selling goods at market. These early lessons in work ethic and enterprise planted the seeds for his future as a builder—of both structures and legacies.

Pelham’s early religious involvement was with the Sunday School and Baptist Young People’s Union (BYPU) organizations at the local Liberty Chapel Baptist Church, which he joined around age 10.

From his early childhood, education was a hill he was willing to climb—literally. He began school in a two room schoolhouse with two teachers managing eight grades for about 80 students. Black children, in grades first through eights, didn’t have school buses, so young Pelham walked miles to school every day—first 2.5 miles to Fairfield Elementary, then 4 miles to the Blaze Pond School.

Pelham walked those distances to school alone, as many of his peers dropped out by the fourth grade. Still, he excelled in academics, winning spelling bees, competing in sports, and exceeding most neighbors expectation.

In 1949, he began high school at Howard Academy in Ocala, Florida, excited to attend school in the city. But after just three days, he was told he could no longer ride the school bus—rural ninth grade students weren’t allowed. At only 14 years old, Pelham made a life-changing decision: he left home, to get a job in the city to pursue his high school education. He ultimately found a job at a hardware store so he could stay in school his 9th grade and the rest of his high school years. He worked 32 hours a week while attending classes half-days—and still graduated in 1953 as a solid “B” student.

His high school years were not without hardship. As one of the few rural students, he was often disrespected by teachers and classmates, alike. Yet in the face of those occurrences, Pelham continued. He was placed in tough academic courses—advanced mathematics, chemistry, physics—and he mastered them. These subjects, perhaps meant as a form of exclusion, ended up guiding him toward a career in engineering.

During those years, he participated in varsity sports and debate, and also met his classmate named Adlene Delores Harrington. She was smart and part of the “in crowd”, yet they became friends, even attending proms together. Decades later, after both had been widowed, Pelham and Adlene reunited and married in 2020—67 years after attending the prom!

Pelham joined the U.S. Army during the latter year of the Korean War and was selected to attend the prestigious Army Engineering School at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. There, being the only Black student among thousands, he specialized in topographic mapping; a skill that took him across the country and portions of the western hemisphere mapping land for geodetic control systems—Alaska, the U.S.- Mexico border, the Caribbean and Central America. His job was to establish geodetic control points (monumental markers), a physical location on the earth surface for future generations to build upon in high-precision mapping. And that’s exactly what he did with his life.

When he returned from the military in 1956, he enrolled at Florida A&M University. At the time, Black students in Florida couldn't earn engineering degrees in the state, nor could they in most colleges or universities in the United States. Pelham and nine other students, seven of them veterans, earned pre-engineering certificates in 1957 before having to transfer to an out of state institution to obtain an engineering education. While many of that group decided to change majors due to the impending out of state cost, Pelham pressed on, graduating from Tennessee A & I State University in 1960 with a BS in Civil Engineering.

In December 1957, he married the love of his life, Mary Ellen Blocker, of Crescent City Florida, a FAMU graduate and educator.

They raised three children—instilling in them the same values of faith, education, and perseverance that carried them through life.

Pelham’s career unfolded during the heart of the Civil Rights Movement. He only marched in protests a few times, didn't give any speeches—but he broke barriers from the inside.

The conscience attitude of the Nation’s population in the 1950s and 1960s seemly had tipped towards equality for all its citizens. Pelham's age group schooling and vocational maturity, at that time, made their generation uniquely qualified to advance that potential. Some of them became the first “Blacks” employed for previously “White Only” positions.

He became:

• The first Black Engineer employed by the U. S. Federal government in the southern United States.
• The first Black licensed Professional Civil Engineer in Georgia.
• One of the first two Black Department Heads in the City of Atlanta, Georgia.
• The first Black Professional Engineer appointed to the Georgia State Board of Professional Engineers Registration.
• The first Black Chairman of Georgia’s State Board of Professional Engineers.
• The first Black President of the Georgia Society of Civil Engineering.
• And, one of the first Black consultants to lead multimillion-dollar public infrastructure projects in multiple locations of the country.

Pelham served in positions appointed by City of Atlanta Mayor Maynard H. Jackson and Mayor Sam Massell; U. S. Virgin Islands Governor Melvin Evans; Georgia Governor Joe Frank Harris and Governor Zell Miller; and several U.S. federal agencies. His work spanned everything from airports to water and wastewater systems to highways & streets, from housing and civil defense to environmental protection.

Pelham’s public position assignments impact extended nationally and beyond. As Special Assistant to the Naval Officer in Charge of Construction for the DC area, he lead a team of professionals in the development and selection of building structures to protect citizens in the U. S. Capital and northern Virginia from radiation and wind blast resulting from nuclear bomb detonations.

Pelham co-founded Williams-Russell and Johnson, Inc., late 1975, and the firm became one of the largest Black-owned engineering, architecture and planning firms in the country. As CEO for 30 years, Pelham led teams on many major projects, such as:

• Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (for 28 consecutive years).
• Fulton County Stadium
• The Georgia Dome
• Olympic Stadium (1996 Olympic Games - Atlanta, GA)
• The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA)
• Houston Rapid Transit Authority
• Miami-Dade County Rapid Transit Authority
• Airports in Miami, Orlando and Jacksonville, Florida; Houston and Dallas Texas; Denver, Colorado; Nashville, Tennessee and Saint Thomas, U. S. Virgin Islands.
• Facilities Development at NASA’s Cape Carnival, Florida and Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, Alabama.
• Community Facilities and Infrastructure planning for thirteen Historical Black Cities located in Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi.
• Major disaster restoration and flood recovery programs in Miami-Dade County Florida, Albany, Georgia and the U. S. Virgin Islands.
• Fulton County, Georgia Government Administration Offices and Courts Complex

• Hazardous Waste Site Restorations in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and beyond.
• U. S. National Parks Facilities Restoration, in Georgia, at the Andersonville, Ocmulgee Mounds and Martin Luther King, Jr. historical sites.
• Facilities at HBCUs — Clark-Atlanta University, Florida A & M, Morehouse School of Medicine, Spellman College, Tennessee State, Tuskegee and others.

The firm, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia with branch offices in six other cities and the U. S. Virgin Islands, employed 250 plus people and mentored dozens of young engineers, architects, planners, technicians and administrative support personnel; frequently helping them enter a profession where they had long been excluded. The Blacks, Whites and other ethnic groups his organization employed, born in countries from around the globe, often times resulted in the firm being referred to as a “mini United Nation.”

Among other distinctions, the firm was recognized by the following industry publications:

• BE 100 (Black Enterprise Magazine)
• ENR Top 500 Design Firms (Engineering News Record)
• Atlanta Business Chronicle Top 25 Engineering Firms

Pelham recognized the importance of civic and community organizations and was an active member of the Atlanta Business League, the Butler Street YMCA, the Atlanta Area Council - Boy Scouts of America, Leadership Atlanta, the Georgia International Fellows Leadership Institute and the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.

Pelham is a man of deep faith, quiet, humility, and fierce dedication to his family. He and Mary Ellen were together for 61 years until her passing in 2018. Their love produced a legacy: three children - Tyrone, Pelham III (Shandle), and Pamela; five grandchildren; Tyrone JT, Dr. Pelham IV (Dr. Christina), Hansen, Zachary and Anya Williams-Phelps; two great-grandsons – Pelham V and Damian, each a living testament to his dreams made possible.

After Mary’s passing, life surprised Pelham once again; bringing Adlene, his high school classmate and prom date, back into his life. Their reunion and later marriage is a joyful chapter in

a life filled with purpose, grace, and growth. Adlene, a former High school principal and Director of Athletics, brought to the Williams’ family daughters Tonia Mitchell and Sharnette Mitchell; grandchildren Oshai Mitchell-Walker, Luther Floyd III and Trevor Floyd (Briana). Adlene and Pelham spent the past five years enjoying travels to some of God's great earthly creations until her passing in early 2025.

Pelham’s parents told him “Everyone is born for a purpose, and that purpose may best be realized by the concern, honor and respect one extends towards another.” This was and is his guiding principle. Whatever position he held or had in life, his intentions were to lift up those around him. It was his natural instinct to invite or hear their voices at the table of decision-making, granting of favors and recognition of accomplishments. He has looked in the mirror, while pondering over that aspect of his life, and his inner conscious replies – “JOB WELL DONE!”

Pelham loves spending time, in person and via the internet and cell phone, with his grandchildren; telling stories about “The Good Ole Days,” talking about current events and sports, and interacting with them regarding investments. He looks forward to the days when the great grandsons are of age and he can do the same with them.

At 90 years young, Pelham Clyde Williams is a symbol of perseverance, leadership and historical progress. He didn’t just witness Black history—he made it. From walking miles alone to segregated schools in Florida to being responsible for providing essential daily services to millions. From being the only Black student in an Army engineering school to building one of the nation’s highly regarded engineering firms.

His life is a testament to what’s possible when courage meets conviction and when quiet determination leads to trailblazing success. It is not only a personal triumph – it is a vital chapter in Black and American history.

To our Dad and Papa-P, “Happy 90th Birthday.” Your story is our inheritance—and your legacy lives on.

We are deeply grateful to each and every one of you for joining us in celebrating 90 wonderful years of life, love, and legacy with our beloved father, Pelham Clyde Williams.

To our dear family and friends—thank you for being here today. Your presence is the greatest gift of all.

To those who traveled from near and far to be with us—we recognize the effort and expense, and we are truly touched by your love and commitment.
To our incredible planning team and helping hands—thank you for every detail, phone call, decoration, dish, and idea that made this day so special.

To all who sent well wishes, cards, prayers, and memories—we felt your spirit and are warmed by your kindness.

From the bottom of our hearts—thank you for being a part of this milestone. Your support made this celebration unforgettable.

With love and gratitude,

The Williams Family