Clare (Pitkin) Livak ’75

Student

Professor Williams made Fluids seem so easy. He had a way of explaining principles that made sense. I enjoyed his classes.

Doug Hathaway ’80

Student

One of two indelible memories of Dr. Williams occurred the afternoon before Thanksgiving. I had a mid afternoon class and was the only person to show up for the class. He looked around, and said “well, you have me for an hour, what do you want to do?” We went into the classroom and worked out problems on the board for the entire hour, one-on-one. To me, that experience defines HMC and Dr. Williams.

Chuck Lemme ’66

Student

Dr. Williams was a fantastic teacher in that he had a way of explaining complicated stuff using the fundamentals of the subject so that the subject matter became part of your world view. He taught me strength oh materials and thermo and when I was the only one to sign up for his elasticity class, instead of cancelling it, he taught me one one one in his office. I have very fond memories of him. He was one of a kind.

Philip Cha

Colleague

Knowing that I’m a die hard Michigan football fan, Harry loved to make fun of the Wolverines, especially after each loss. As a result, I always dreaded going to work following a Michigan defeat, knowing that Harry would stop by sooner or later to give me some grief. Anyways, in 2000, UCLA played host to Michigan at the Rose Bowl early in the football season. I believe at the time Michigan was ranked #2 or #3 in the country, and was heavily favored to win the game. Desperately wanting to get even, I invited Harry to the game, thinking that I would finally have the last laugh. To my dismay, Michigan lost that day. I don’t remember much of the game, but I do remember how much fun I had with Harry. Never thought I would ever enjoy a game in which Michigan was on the losing end. To this day, every time I watch a Michigan game, I would think of Harry. I will miss him.

Nancy Lape

Colleague

Harry had already retired by the time I began my faculty position at HMC in 2005, but he was always active both physically – with his regular swims – and intellectually. Harry would stop by my office to see what I was up to in class, in clinic, and in research; he read the reports of several of my clinic teams out of pure intellectual curiosity. He gave me a hard time for preferring running to swimming and told me I was going to fall apart someday from all of the impact. For all of these reasons (except the whole running vs. swimming debate!), I always thought of Harry as a role model; my husband and I always say we want to be like Harry when we “grow up”. Harry was an important fixture of the department and I cannot believe he is gone; he will be sorely missed.

Rich Phillips

Colleague

HARRY WAS A TRUE SCHOLAR. HE WORKED PRIVATELY ON SUBJECTS THAT INTERESTED HIM, HOWEVER THEY MIGHT ARISE. ONCE, WHEN WE WERE TEAM TEACHING MATERIALS, A THIRD LECTURER REMARKED THAT A PHASE TRANSFORMATION WAS “INSTANTANEOUS”. OK WITH ME, BUT LATER HARRY SAID, “NOTHING IS INSTANTANEOUS” AND STARTED TO LOOK INTO IT. I THINK THAT HE WORKED FOR A YEAR, OR SO, ON THIS!

JOAN AND I WILL MISS HIM TERRIBLY.

Ruye Wang

Colleague

Harry was my colleague for ten years until he retied from work in 2000; he was my swimming mate for 25 years until he retired from life in 2015. During these 25 years, almost every noon of the week, we would meet in the hallway and get on our bikes, in his case, his tricycle in recent years, and ride down together to the pool. We and a few other swimmers formed a small group and we would chat everything in the lockers room, mostly without our clothes on, from mathematics to politics, from soccer games to the latest movies. Since I came back from my sabbatical in England some years ago, Harry and I had one more hot topic, our trips to England. He was so fond of his experience there, that we could talk in length the towns and villages we had both visited, even some swimming pools we had both enjoyed.

When my daughter Joanna became old enough to enjoy water at about five or six, I took her to the pool, where she met harry. The two got along so well since the first day, that they would splash water on each other whenever they saw each other in the pool. Harry became “the grandpa who splashed water on me” to Joanna ever since. When I told Joanna, now a senior in college, over the phone that her grandpa who splashed water passed away, there was a long silence on the other end…

A few years ago, when Harry’s wife Jane passed away, he told me how he would try to hold his emotion most of the time when he was with others, and he would only let himself shed tears when he was in the pool, where he was alone, comforted by no one but the soothing water. Now, when Harry himself is gone, it is the turn for others to mourn him, for some, also in water.

I last saw harry in June, right before I left school for the summer. When I came back in August, I was expecting to see him right away, in the hallway or in the pool, like all previous summers. But I found him in neither place. The news that he was in hospital did not come with too much of a surprise, as that had happened before. But, I didn’t realize, this time it was different.

Harry passed away at 12 noon, the time when he would get on his tricycle and head to the pool. His last thought must have been the pool, the calming blue water, sparkling under the sun. Having been swimming with Harry for 25 years, I cannot believe he will never be in the pool again. His elegant strokes in free style have been so deeply imprinted on my mind, whenever I swim in the pool, I can feel he is swimming in the lane right next to mine. Harry, I am sure there is a beautiful pool in heaven, and you are there every noon, like an old but most reliable clock, never missing even once. You will never retire from swimming there again.

Sam Tanenbaum

Faculty Colleague

Harry Williams was truly a “one of a kind” member of the Harvey Mudd community. He was a meticulous scholar who set very high standards for the accuracy of his own research and for the work of students in his courses or Clinic teams. On a personal level, he was a truly sweet and generous man. During my years as dean of faculty he would occasionally disagree with some decision I made, and he wasn’t shy about letting me know about it; but that never interfered with our warm friendship and our mutual respect.

After his retirement our paths didn’t cross very often until I moved into an emeritus office just across the hall from him. He used his office and continued to work on detailed analytical mechanics problems almost every day when he was not at the beach or away visiting a daughter. It was always fun to take a break and chat in his office. He always kept up with the latest news about the college and especially about other emeriti.

With his 55 years at the College Harry truly carried a lot of institutional memory. We’ll all miss him a lot!

Mike Sutton

Friend/colleague

I had the pleasure of knowing Harry since the summer of ’93 when I assigned myself to lifeguard at the Harvey Mudd pool. We would later enjoy the World Cup games at the Mudd Hole and I always looked forward to Harry and Mitz showing up at the CMC pool for their swim/lunch.
Amazing changes to our campuses we have seen in Harry’s time. I’ll miss him as a friend and part of our history at the Colleges. Rest in peace Harry….

Ran Libeskind-Hadas

Colleague

Harry and I were members of a group that we called the “Harvey Mudd Swim Team” – an informal group of faculty and staff colleagues (mostly in their 40s-70’s) that swam together most days at the CMC pool. Harry was always joyful and made all of us feel happy to be together.