Thomas Woodworth Williams sports a three-decade educational career in both Carolinas. He’s familiar to many as East Henderson basketball coach, and Hendersonville Middle School principal.

He taught science and physical education and coached at East Henderson High from 1966-83. Williams was a state champion basketball point guard for Hendersonville High as a junior in 1952. He was the floor general, and second leading scorer. “He was always the best athlete in the neighborhood,” recalled Boyce “Blondie” Whitmire, Jr., his childhood neighbor and longtime fellow educator and fishing buddy. Whitmire helped HHS win its first two basketball titles, in 1948 and ’49, then played for Western Carolina University (WCU).

Williams soon followed, playing basketball for four years for WCU and earning a degree in health, physical education and biology in 1957.

The no-nonsense former Marine lieutenant was South Carolina Coach of the Year, for leading Daniel High near Clemson to the South Carolina 2-A basketball title before teaching here. He was also Daniel’s Dean of Boys. He first taught at Wilkes Central High, in Wilkesboro.

Williams was head coach of East football, boys’ and girls’ basketball, golf, and track’s field events at various times. He led up to four sports per year. He said like his mentor HHS Coach Ted Carter, he sought “perfection” from players. He instilled a basic offense, and sense of pride and purpose and “team-man-ship.” He said that from athletics, youth learn “how to get along, and deal with ups and downs. You’re going to have knocks in life. But we gave some back, too.”

He’d “command our respect, but care about us as individuals,” said John Kelly (East Class of 1983), who played basketball for him. “He had a very decisive, calming and powerfully-motivating influence, always driving you to want to strive for the best,” F. Timothy Reese recalls from more than 40 years ago. “He was a master at behavior psychology.” Dwayne Durham, who runs a local sports medicine clinic, was initiated into that field in the early Seventies. Then, Coach Williams urged him to be team trainer and study athletic injuries in a non-credit course.
Williams was also East athletic director and assistant principal and disciplinarian, for 11 years. Early on, he helped East regrade its rough first football field into E.L. Justus field and track, with a crowned epicenter and improved drainage. His longtime principal, Dr. Thomas Ledbetter, describes Williams as “very conscientious and efficient.”

Crowds usually were for Williams-coached teams. Once, though, students surrounded another incident at school which he refereed. It was a fight between two East non-tomboy girls, that he broke up. “They were pulling hair, and slapping each other.”

Next, Williams taught in Hendersonville High, in 1983-84, and helped coach football. Then-freshman Bradley C. Jones recalls Williams as “fair but firm” as his golf coach, homeroom and science teacher. “Coach Williams had total control of the classroom. He pushed his students to learn above their natural capacity.” He gave all golfers match time. Jones said Williams embodied “fairness, character, equal opportunity and competitiveness.” Retired HHS principal Tom Wilson added, “his leadership skills and work ethics have provided quality examples, to co-workers and students.”

Next, Williams took the helm of Hendersonville Middle School, as principal from 1984 until retiring in 1990. “He showed fairness,” Patsy Farmer Jones recalled. Nicky D. Roberts, who also taught for him, said he was “open to innovations.” Williams said “I told teachers their classroom was their ship. They could run it.”

After retiring in ’90, he worked part-time until 1996 in school maintenance, supervising renovation of HHS and its band room. He set up and kept up a program assisting custodians in each school, aiding the 1993 merger.
Tom and Kay Williams have two daughters, two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Of course, Mr. Williams looks at his former students like a proud father. “We prepare children for their future citizenship and leadership,” he said. “The reward you get working with kids is seeing how they develop in the community.”