Remembering Archie Williams’ legendary legacy By Emma Rose Neal The Buccaneer, 1970 arely will one come across a high school teacher that has broken a world record, won an Olympic gold medal, and became one of the first African American pilots in the United States. Yet Sir Francis Drake High School was fortunate to have a teacher for 22 years that matches all of the above: Archie Williams. Williams was one of the African American athletes, including Jesse Owens, whose success caught t he wor l d ’s R attention at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games held in Berlin, Germany. Adolph Hitler and Nazi officials closely watched the 400 meter race as America’s Archie Williams was first to sprint across the finish line, winning a gold medal and helping disprove the Nazis’ racist ideology. During his first season on the UC Berkeley track team, he broke the 400 meter world record with a time of 46.1 seconds at the 1936 NCAA track and field championship. A hamstring injury cut his athletic career short soon after the Olympics, but his remarkable achievements didn’t stop there. After graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering, he earned his private pilot’s license and at the beginning of World War II relocated to Alabama to serve as a civilian flight instructor for the famed Tuskegee airmen, an all African American flying unit. Williams then enrolled in the meteorology aviation program at UCLA and upon graduating returned to Tuskegee, where he was commissioned 13 The Jolly Roger | April 2020 “He was the best teacher in the faculty and I think everybody always wanted to be a student of his.” as one of the first four African American service pilots in the Army Air Corps. He served in the Korean War as a weather forecaster and logged several combat missions, retiring in 1964 as a lieutenant colonel and command pilot of 22 years. Williams returned to education in 1965, but instead of training cadets in wind dexterity and flying maneuvers, he was teaching quadratic equations and linear inequalities to high school students in San Anselmo. Alongside math, Williams taught computer science, coached the golf and track team, and helped establish the Marin Special Olympics program. Although Williams’ unique accomplishments inspired students, it was his great mentorship and caring spirit that made him so popular among the student body. “He was just good to everybody, he was compassionate, knowledgeable, and gave people their space, he never judged anyone. You just don’t find people like that,” said Rhonda Reynolds, class of 1983. Some former students even consider Williams to be a monumental figure in their lives. Mario Marckwordt had math with Williams for his freshman year of 1971. “He was one of those people, that when I look back on my life, he changed me,” Marckwordt said. Marckwordt recalls sitting in his math 1936 Olympics held in Berlin, Germany class in 1971 when Williams described the discrimination he faced in his flying career. “I became so sad and so angry that this man who was the best couldn’t fly because of the color of his skin […] it was a turning point in my life. For the first time I saw racism.” Recently retired United Airlines pilot, Pete McConnell, was in Williams’ introduction to math class in 1969. Fourteen years later, McConnell attended college full time as a major in aeronautics. Not only did Williams volunteer to tutor him in trigonometry, but he assisted with McConnell’s advanced flight training inair. “I met him once a week in one of the Drake classrooms. This was totally on his own time,” McConnel said. Kurt Garriot, class of 1987, attributes his 28 year military career to Williams’ inspiring stories. He recalls being misdirected in high school, but insisted on never cutting Williams’ class. “He was the best teacher in the faculty and I think everybody always wanted to be a student of his,” Garriot said. “I wouldn’t have graduated if it wasn’t for him.” The yearbook was dedicated to Williams the year of his retirement in 1987, the Drake Scholarship Foundation offers a scholarship in his name, and the Drake Leadership Council recently approved a plan to implement a memorial for Williams on campus. Williams passed away on June 23, 1993 in Fairfax, but memories of him remain in the hearts of many in the Drake community. FEATURE
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