BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - You might have known him as the individual who always asks the first question at the Prime Minister’s Monthly Press Conference, but to many he was seen as a visionary, a scholar and a champion of youth education.
Hundreds of people were expected to say their final farewells on Friday (March 1) to popular Birmingham Ambassador and Community Leader Gus Williams, who died suddenly on February 4, 2013.
Williams founded the charity Acafess, which supported generations of young people from its Moseley Road base.
He also served as a surveyor, who worked with Birmingham City Council for 30 years, and a Liberal Party candidate who regularly walked the streets of Handsworth as he attended Parliamentary committees, or while talking with his great friend Liberal Party Leader Lord David Steele.
Williams, who was 64, divided his time in St. Kitts where he owned a radio station called Radio One FM 94.1, but also spent several months of the year with his family in Birmingham.
He was staying with his sister Lorna George at her Perry Barr home when he fell ill with stomach pains and succumbed to kidney failure at City Hospital 24 hours later, which followed a stroke in which he suffered six months in St Kitts but had made a good recovery.
“Gus’s sudden death has been a terrible shock to us all because he still had so much to offer. It’s a waste of a great mind,” said his sister Lorna in an interview with voice-online in the United Kingdom.
“He was an intellectual, but also a humble, charming man who had great charisma. He always had a smile on his face and was there for anyone in the community who needed his help,” she said.
Many tributes poured in for the popular father of four, who studied at the University of Birmingham and pioneered research into ‘hurricane-proof’ homes in the Caribbean.
Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, highlighted Williams’ many contributions to the development of the islands.
Former Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Councilor Sybil Spence, said: “Gus was a man of many talents – a real community leader who inspired others.”
Civil rights veteran Maxie Hayles said: “Gus was a dynamic personality who was a great ambassador for black people in the city. He was very politically astute but supported the wrong party. I used to tell him that if he supported Labour he would have gone far.”
Fellow community activist Bini Brown recalled Williams’ entrepreneurial spirit from their schooldays together in Birmingham when he would go out at lunchtime to buy biscuits for a penny each then come back and sell them in the schoolyard for two pennies.
“He was always laughing and cracking jokes, but he had a great mind. He’ll be missed,” said Brown.
Desmond Jaddoo, of Birmingham Empowerment Forum, said: “Gus was instrumental in building bridges within the community following the 1985 riots in Birmingham.”
Information gleaned from http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/hundreds-say-farewell-%E2%80%98visionary%E2%80%99-gus-williams
