Williams will receive emeritus standing as senior fellow at the University of Montana Center for the Rocky Mountain West during the monthly regents meeting in Helena. Emeritus status is bestowed on many dedicated educators or administrators nearing the end of their careers.
On Thursday, Williams said he's still at least a year from retiring at UM, where he serves as a senior fellow at the Center for the Rocky Mountain West, a research institute, and teaches several classes in history, environmental studies, forestry and geography.
It's unusual for members of Congress to return to Montana to live after their time in federal politics is complete, said UM Executive Vice President Jim Foley. Yet, Williams' decision to return to this state has benefitted UM college students for the past 13 years.
“There's value in him coming home,” Foley said.
In Williams' 26-year career in education, 20 years were spent teaching in classrooms. Williams began teaching secondary education in Butte. He later served as an administrator for an educational research program based in Glasgow.
Williams served two terms in the state Legislature and 18 years in Congress, during which time he chaired the Postsecondary Education Subcommittee and saved the National Endowment for the Arts - an act for which he has received numerous national awards. During his time in Congress, Williams often was a guest lecturer at Harvard University.
Williams is humbled by the most recent honor and described emeritus standing as at “the top of the heap” of the many awards he has received during his distinguished political and education career. Standing in front of a classroom provides Williams with the “most joy in my life,” he said.
When Williams eventually decides to retire from UM, he intends to complete a book he has been working on for some time, which through his personal experiences, illustrates changes in Montana and the Rocky Mountain West, as well as write more newspaper columns and contribute more to public radio.
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at chelsi.moy@
missoulian.com
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