By Preston Williams
The 123 Club was created 30 years ago by top business leaders to bring attention to the needs of a growing Mason.
To honor that anniversary, the members of the 123 Club are raising funds to support a new Mason faculty award named in honor of late defense contractor and civic leader Earle C. Williams, who for decades helped shape Mason into a major Northern Virginia asset.
Williams, former president and CEO of technology and government services contractor BDM International, was a pillar of the community who helped found Mason’s engineering school and also helped launch the Center for the Arts, among other Mason projects.
A Washington Post story after Williams’s death last year at 86 referred to him as “an aggressive booster of George Mason University and Northern Virginia Community College.” Williams was a founding 123 Club member and also served as chair of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority.
Mason awarded Williams the university’s highest honor, the Mason Medal, in 2005.
The May meeting of the 123 Club will celebrate donations from members and friends to fund the Earle Williams Faculty Award for Social Impact at George Mason University. At Spring Commencement on May 20, the award will be presented to a Mason faculty member who collaborates with community members, and whose commitment has a lasting impact on the region, much the way Williams did.
“Earle was an authentic leader who believed in building a great community in addition to building a great company,” Todd Stottlemyer, CEO of the Inova Center for Personalized Health, and a member of the 123 Club, said last year in eulogizing Williams.
Donations will contribute to the university’s endowment and can be made online. Checks can be made payable to:
George Mason University Foundation
Earle Williams Faculty Award
4400 University Drive, MS 1A3
Fairfax, VA 22030