[James] Clifton Williams, Jr. (26 March 1923 Traskwood, Arkansas — 12 February 1976 Miami, Florida) was an American composer, pianist, French hornist, mellophonist, music theorist, conductor, and teacher.
The young composer was honored with performances of Peace, A Tone Poem and A Southwestern Overture by the Houston and Oklahoma City symphony orchestras, respectively.
Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Williams left school after completing his first year at Louisiana Tech University to enlist in the United States Army Air Corps for the duration of World War II.
A sympathetic officer recognized and encouraged Williams's diverse musical talents, including arranging and composing, and the onetime private ultimately left the service with the rank of staff sergeant.
[6] [7] On completing his studies in 1949, Clifton Williams joined the composition department of the School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin.
He was a close colleague of fellow composer Alfred Reed while the two worked at the University of Miami, their offices being only steps apart in the music building at UM.
The Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation commissioned Williams to compose a work celebrating the 25th anniversary of the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra (circa its 1964–1965 season).
The New Jersey City University's Symphony of Winds and Percussion revived Williams's unpublished Symphonic Essays in the spring of 2013.
Commissioned by the United States Air Force Academy, the work contains an a cappella hymn, "What Greater Thing", that has become the unofficial alma mater song and has been performed at every USAFA commencement ceremony since 1965.