Jack Williams (American politician)

Williams was born to James and Laure (LaCossette) Williams in Los Angeles on October 29, 1909. His parents, who had met while both working at a Wells Fargo office in Los Angeles, were assigned to the Wells Fargo office in Ash Fork, Arizona, at the time of his birth but still made periodic trips to Los Angeles to visit his mother's family.[1] While still a child, his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where Williams was raised.[2] In 1915, while visiting Los Angeles, Williams was diagnosed with a malignant tumor behind his right eye. At that time, Marie Curie was in the city giving lectures and demonstrating the use of radium pellets. After surgical removal of the eye and tumor, his physicians – unsure how to proceed – asked Curie to assist with Williams' treatment.[1] Radiation therapy administered by Curie was successful in halting the cancer but left his eye socket unable to accept a glass eye.[3] Williams instead became known for wearing glasses with a frosted lens.[4]

In 1924, Williams' father died suddenly.[5] Williams graduated from Phoenix Union High School and enrolled at Phoenix Junior College (now Phoenix College).[2] While in college he helped his family financially by writing press releases and holding part-time positions at the Phoenix Public Library and a local supermarket.[6] Williams graduated from Phoenix Junior College in 1929.[7]

As he prepared for graduation in 1929, Williams found a job posting for a radio announcer at KOY. He applied for the position and was hired, beginning with a two-hour on-air shift each day.[8] Williams began his radio career announcing songs and performing live advertisements for KOY. A couple months after starting, the station replaced him with a British actor. When the actor moved away from Phoenix several weeks later, Williams was rehired.[8] By 1931 he had added news announcer to his list of duties with Williams rewriting stories from the Los Angeles Examiner or radio news services for the local audience.[9]

With the election of 1932 approaching, Williams created a news program titled I Vote For in which he asked people from around the state who they intended to vote for and later played the recorded answers. This program was the first time either of Phoenix's two radio stations (KTAR being the second) left their studios to interact with the public.[10] In 1936, KOY underwent a change of ownership. With the new management, Williams received a promotion to program director, a job title he would hold for the next 30 years.[10] In his role at KOY, he would go on to host the commentary show Yours Sincerely.[11] Williams opened each show with his signature line, "It's a beautiful day in Arizona. Leave us all enjoy it!".[4]

On June 5, 1942, Williams married Vera May. The union produced three children: John Richard Jr., Micheal M., and Nikki.[12]

A member of the Phoenix Union High School Board of Education approached Williams in 1942, asking him to run for a seat on the Phoenix Elementary School District No. 1 board. Williams was initially reluctant but eventually agree to run, only to lose. The next year one of the three members of the Elementary School board was removed from office and Williams was appointed to fill the empty seat. Shortly after taking office he was made board president, a position he would retain until 1952.[13] In addition to his seat on the school board, Williams became active in other civic and governmental activities. In 1946 he became president of Phoenix Junior Chamber of Commerce while he was vice president of the Phoenix Housing Authority from 1944 to 1947.[14] The Phoenix Advertising Club named Williams Man of the Year in 1953.[15]

Williams' biggest impact on the school board came in 1951 following passage of a law by the state legislature allowing districts to voluntarily desegregate. He joined with another board member to pass a measure, 2–1, that desegregated Phoenix elementary schools. To deal with concerns from the minority community that minority teachers would lose their jobs he announced a "quota system" for the hiring of teachers.[13] To alleviate concerns of white parents with children assigned to predominantly minority classrooms he announced an "open school policy" allowing students to transfer to any other school in the district.[16]

In 1952, one of Phoenix's city council members moved his residence outside city limits and was required to abandon his seat. Barry Goldwater, another member of the city council, nominated Williams to fill the remainder of the outgoing councilman's term. After his appointment to the seat, Williams quickly learned he did not enjoy the "squabbles" that dominated legislative process. An example of this came when the city council considered buying several privately held water companies from local businessman Spence Stewart in order to merge them into a municipal water company. Williams focused on whether the purchase made sense for the city while the majority of the council were concerned with "not making Spence Stewart a millionaire by buying his water companies".[16] Williams declined to run when his partial term ended in 1954.[14][16]

Soon after he left office as mayor, Republican leaders within Arizona began lobbying Williams to run for governor. He instead returned to working full-time at KOY.[22] Williams also began writing a regular column in the Phoenix Gazette.[14] The combination of his work on radio and the newspaper kept him involved with state-wide politics.[22] This changed in 1965 when Barry Goldwater and Paul Fannin convinced Williams to make a run. As part of the agreement between the men, Fannin, who had received assistance from Williams during his 1958 run for governor, promised to help Williams in his run.[22]

As he began campaigning, Williams took a leave of absence from his position at KOY. This was done to avoid violating a 1959 change to the equal-time provision of the Fairness Doctrine and to allow him to campaign full-time.[22] His opponents during the Republican primary were Arizona House Speaker John Haugh and former Arizona Attorney General Robert Pickrell.[22] Haugh's political power was based in the southern section of the state.[23] Williams was aided in Maricopa County by his increased name recognition from his time as mayor of Phoenix.[15] Pickrell would quickly fall out of contention as the campaign developed. Williams and Haugh meanwhile ran on virtually identical platforms with both men promising to work more closely with the state legislature than the sitting governor.[24] Results of the primary gave Williams a narrow victory over Haugh, with Pickrell finishing a distant third.[23]

Campaign for the general election quickly turned nasty with the incumbent, Sam Goddard, accusing Williams of running a "scurrilous" campaign predicated on "invective and accusation and character assassination."[23] Williams responded by claiming Goddard had "made more mistakes in twenty months than all the other governors since statehood" and accusing him of "behaved like a petty tyrant scolding his subjects."[23] Mudslinging continued for the course of the campaign with both candidates questioning the qualifications of the other.[25] Williams used self-deprecating humor to deflect his opponent's attacks and as election day approached claimed "For the past two months Sam Goddard has been so busy thinking up new names to call me he's forgotten to talk about the issues."[26] In addition to his own victory, Williams saw his party do well in races for the state legislature. This resulted in Republicans winning control of both houses of the state legislature for the first time in Arizona history.[15]

As governor, Williams kept a relatively low profile. As explained by the Arizona Republic, "... partly because the state constitution doesn't give the governor very much power. But it's more because Williams is neither charismatic nor flamboyant. He is basically a team player who believes in appointing good men to top posts and then allowing them to run their departments."[15] Politically, he was a hard-line conservative who worked to minimize taxes, balance the state budget, and provide a favorable business environment. As a measure of his efforts toward economic development, Arizona saw state-wide employment rise from 548,00 to 803,400 during his three terms, while manufacturing employment rose 103 percent and bank deposits saw a two-and-a-half fold increase.[15] The primary achievement of Williams' first term was an overhaul of the assessment process for property taxes. The process for determining assessed values varied between the state's counties, as Williams pointed out in his 1967 State of the State speech. The legislature responded to Williams by enacting a single assessment methodology to be used by all counties throughout the state.[26] Additionally, his administration created the Indian Development District of Arizona to promote economic development on the states' reservations and Williams visited the tribal council of each of the state's 17 Indian tribes.[15]

With his departure from public office, the state media editorialized that Williams had performed his duties well, the Arizona Republic saying he could retire safe in the knowledge of a "job well done". An indication of his ability to nominate quality department heads came when his successor, Raul Castro, asked for many of Williams' appointees to remain at their posts.[36] Williams himself, upon leaving office, took his wife on an extended trip to South America.[2]

With radio having transitioned to a music format, Williams was unable to return to his previous role as an announcer. He instead wrote his newspaper column, authored a book, engaged in public speaking, and traveled.[37] From 1981 to 1994, Williams was a member of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District board.[38]

Williams' wife died in December 1997.[7] The former governor's health soon after took a noticeable decline.[37] Williams died in his home on August 24, 1998.[38] He had cancer and other ailments at the time of his death.[4]