A prominent Athens businessman with strong ties to Gainesville, Claude Williams, Junior, has died.
Williams, who grew up in Gainesville, died at his Athens home Saturday at the age of 95.
He was a 1940 graduate of Gainesville High School, who founded or co-founded radio stations in Athens, Cornelia, Monroe and Sandersville, as well as a weekly newspaper that became the Athens Daily News.
Williams and his family returned to Gainesville in 1951, where he served as general manager of the Ford dealership. He also became a director of The Citizens Bank of Gainesville (now Bank of America) and was a member of the Rotary Club, Gainesville Jaycees and chamber of commerce. He was a former Gainesville Young Man of the Year. In 1964, six years after returning to Athens, he founded Georgia Outdoor Advertising. Following the sale of Georgia Outdoor in 1986, the Williams family formed a partnership with George Allison to purchase Allison Outdoor Advertising in Sylva, N.C.
Williams will be buried in Alta Vista Cemetery in Gainesville Friday afternoon, following a service in his memory that morning at the First Baptist Church in Athens.
(Click here for full obituary.)
