He went on to become president and chairman of the Sears Bank, a Chicago lender (later acquired by Old Kent Bank), and the president and chairman of Chicago Milwaukee Corp, a railroad and real estate company, before setting up manufacturing businesses in China in the 1990s.
Williams served as a Director of the following New York Stock Exchange companies: Williams served as the President of the Chicago Crusade of Mercy (United Way), President and Life Trustee of the Adler Planetarium,[6] President and Life Trustee of the Ravinia Festival Association,[7] President of the Chicago Community Fund, Chairman of the Illinois Health Education Commission, Chairman-Finance of the Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Trustee of the Charles W. Kellstadt Foundation and as a Life Trustee of Emory University.
He was a member of the graduating class of 1932 from Emory University, where there is now a teaching award for academic excellence that bears his name.
[9] During World War II, Williams was primarily based in the South-East Asian theatre of World War II, working under Supreme Allied Commander for South East Asia Lord Louis Mountbatten.
Williams lived in Wilmette, Illinois and Loblolly Bay, a private club in Hobe Sound, Florida that he cofounded in 1979.