Carrington Williams Was A Leading Preservationist
September 2002

MCLEAN, Va. — Carrington Williams, founding board chairman of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation and first board chairman of the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT), died Aug. 3 at age 83 of complications resulting from a July 22 auto accident.

According to CWPT President James Lighthizer, Williams was “a driving force” to bring about the merger of the Trust’s two predecessor organizations, the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites (APCWS), where he served on the board, and the Civil War Trust.

Williams saw to it that Lighthizer got the presidency of the fledgling organization. Following the merger, Williams served for two-and-a-half years as the Trust’s chairman of the board, stepping down this past April to take a board seat.

Lighthizer said Williams was a key player in eliminating the $7 million debt that came with APCWS, and in “changing the culture of the organization.” He believed in letting his president run the day-to-day operations of the Trust, Lighthizer said, freeing Lighthizer to carry out “radical and controversial changes” to create the new organization.

Closely connected to Virginia politics, Williams was “instrumental” in getting Virginia Gov. James Gilmore to provide $3.4 million in battlefield-preservation funding, and more recently he smoothed the Trust’s way with the new administration of Gov. Mark Warner.

“He was the most important guy during our two formative years,” Lighthizer said. “He was respected and admired by both groups, almost uniquely so. He gave thousands of hours of his time. He was a true Virginia gentleman of the old school.

“He was passionate and knowledgeable about the war. I used to kid him that we were like two drunks in a liquor store — we never saw land we didn’t want to save.”

Patricia L. Zontine, Vice Chairman of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, said: “The personal loss we feel is indescribable. Carrington was someone who made an indelible impression on the people he met. He always charmed us with his grace, humor and warmth and impressed us with his intellect, strength and creativity.”

She cited his commitment “to the concept that understanding the lessons of the war would enable contemporary Americans to be effective stewards of our nation’s future.”

Zontine said Williams embraced the vision for preservation and interpretation of the Shenandoah Valley Civil War battlefields that was articulated by Congress in 1996.

“[It] was his leadership and commitment that steered it from legislative language through the Battlefields Commission and the Management Plan to the beginning phases of implementation by the Foundation.”

Williams chaired the battlefield commission and the successor foundation. “He oversaw the work, labored to create partnerships, worked with federal, state, and local officials to get their support and spoke to anyone who would listen about its purpose,” said Zontine.

Howard Kittell, Executive Director of the Battlefields Foundation, said: “Over the past four-and-a-half years, I have worked with Carrington Williams on an almost daily basis. It has been one of the greatest learning experiences of my life. His sense of civic duty and profound belief in the balance and mutual benefit that can be gained by partnerships between government and the private sector is the basis upon which the Battlefields Foundation rests. Person-ally for me, Carrington was both a mentor and a dear friend. I have been truly blessed that our paths have crossed.”

Williams was a native of Brookneal, Va. He received his B.A. from Johns Hopkins in 1940 and his law degree from University of Virginia, where he later was a trustee emeritus. He joined the Army Air Force in World War II, serving in the Pacific Theater and rising to rank of captain.
He was the youngest defense counsel at the war-crimes trials in Japan. He then practiced law in Richmond before moving to northern Virginia.

Williams was a former Partner and then Of Counsel in the law firm of McGuire Woods LLP. He held numerous public offices and was a former member of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s Board of Directors and chairman of its Planning Committee.

He served in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1966-1970 and 1972-1978. For 20 years he served the George Mason University Foundation, as trustee, president and general counsel. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Shenandoah University in 2000. At the time of his death, he was on the National Air and Space Museum board.