Walter Williams
The Honorable Judge Walter F. Williams was born on July 20, 1952, and passed from this life into the next on August 8, 2025.
He was born to Velma Lee, growing up in the Westside Housing Projects and by all accounts was a highly intelligent and precocious child. At the age of 7, he announced that he wanted to become a judge in a time before the Civil Rights Act. He admired his Uncle John Housch who was a practicing attorney in Washington, DC. Growing up, he was encouraged to make a goal of working at the steel plant or one of the local foundries, but he had his own ambitions.
He graduated at the top of his class from Howard High School in Chattanooga, in 1970. While he earned scholarships, he worked his way through Morehouse College where he pledged Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., Alpha Rho Chapter. He earned Phi Beta Kappa and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts Degree and double majored in Political Science and Business in 1974.
While a student at Howard Law School in Washington D.C., he received a certificate in Drug Abuse Counseling from the University of Miami School of Medicine through a U.S. Office of Education sponsored summer program. In 1977, he was awarded a Juris Doctor Degree from Howard University School of Law, where he graduated with honors and was an Earl Warren Fellow.
On June 4, 1977, he married his college sweetheart, Gwendolyn McIntosh, whom he met in 1972 at the Regional Conference for Alpha Phi Alpha in Greensboro, N.C., where she was Miss Black and Gold for the Alabama District. He volunteered to be her escort and started what was to be a 48 year marriage.
He first practiced law with the Internal Revenue Service’s Regional Counsel Office in Atlanta, from 1977 to 1980. In 1980, he became a partner in Chattanooga’s first all black law firm of McClarty & Williams, where he primarily handled personal injury, corporate, estate and municipal law cases. He also taught for eight years as a full-time assistant professor of Marketing & Business Law at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
In 1991, he achieved his lifelong dream of winning his first political race, obtaining 56% of the vote, and was elected Judge of the City of Chattanooga for a term of eight years. His judicial ‘no- nonsense’ approach and unusual alternative sentencing gained him national attention along with numerous awards and honors. He was featured on the initial segment of CBS’s “Street Stories” hosted by Ed Bradley; and has appeared on CNN, the 700 Club, and in JET, Newsweek,
Reader's Digest, Southern Living, and other publications.
His life motto comes from an old song, “If I can help somebody as I pass along, then my living shall not be in vain”. True to his belief that “education is the key to success,” Judge Williams proudly reported that more than 893 defendants obtained their G.E.D. since he took office, with an additional 500 still under the Judge’s mandate to do so at the time of his retirement. He was instrumental in directing more than 300 students to further their education at Chattanooga State Technical College, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and other schools and universities.
Records in Chattanooga City Court also show that in a two-year period of time, Judge Williams reduced the number of repeat offenders in his court by 50% and assisted a number of people in obtaining employment. City records show that Judge Williams’ modernization and hard work increased excess revenues, above expenses, from $500,000 in 1991 to more than 1.3 million dollars in 1999.
Judge Williams created the first Environmental Court docket in Chattanooga to assist in cleaning up the city. In less than two years, the City of Chattanooga boasted an increase in compliance with code regulations from 30% to 86% as a result of his strong and deliberate actions in the Environmental Court docket.
In March 1999, Judge Williams was re-elected to a second eight-year term; this time, capturing 70% of the vote and turned back challenges of two lawyers who sought to unseat him.
Judge Williams decided to retire from the bench in 2003 and return to private practice after serving 12 years on the bench and having accrued 18 years of service with the City of Chattanooga. He served as a senior partner in the law firm McKoon, Williams, Atchley & Stulce, PLLC until he retired from private practice in August, 2015.
Active in numerous community organizations, some of Judge Williams’ former board memberships include: The Tennessee Aquarium, Valley Capital Corporation, The Ronald McDonald House, Friendship Haven Home For the Elderly and the Baylor School Parents Council. He was elected Chairman of the Board of the Westside Community Development Corporation. He also served a number of years as Chairman and member of the Board of Trustees of the Hamilton County Governmental Law Library. He is a Life and Thousandaire Member of the Morehouse College National Alumni Association. Most recently, he was elected Board Chair for Kingdom Partners.
Strong in his religious convictions, he was a deacon at First Baptist Church on East Eighth Street. He also served on the Board of St. Barnabas Nursing Home and Retirement Apartments, where he was on the capital campaign and strategic planning committees. He served as the Chairman of the Scholarship Committee of the 100 Black Men of Chattanooga, having served in this position for 11 years guiding more than $250,000 in scholarship awards.
He holds membership in a number of organizations, including, but not limited to, Sigma Pi Phi (Boule) where he was a charter member, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Morehouse Alumni Association Chattanooga Chapter, 100 Black Men of Chattanooga, National Bar Association (Judicial Council), American Bar Association (Judicial Council), Tennessee Bar Association, Chattanooga Bar Association and S.L. Hutchins Bar Association.
He was preceded in death by his grandmother, Florence Housch Lee and mother, Velma Lee Barnes.
He is survived by his loving wife Gwendolyn, daughters Hillary and Heather, grandson Trey, brother
Jackie (Pinky), sister-in-law Gracie Guerry, brother-in-law Ronald (Patricia) McIntosh and a host of
amazing, wonderful and glorious nieces, nephews, cousins, and other loved ones, as well as the
members of his beloved community.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a memorial contribution to the Judge Walter F. Williams, ’74, Endowed Scholarship Fund at Morehouse College. Contributions may be sent to: Morehouse College, Office of Institutional Advancement, 830 Westview Drive SW Atlanta, Ga. 30314.
Public viewing will be held at the funeral home on Tuesday, Aug. 19, from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. The funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 20, at the First Baptist Church, 506 East Eighth Street, Chattanooga, Tn. 37403, officiated by Rev. Dr. William Terry Ladd, III.