Roger H. Williams

Roger H. Williams, born in Ithaca, in 1874, played important roles as lawyer, banker, and civic leader through many years of a truly distinguished career. A Cornell graduate, he received degrees of M.A. from Yale and LL.B. and J.D. from New York University.

He began his business career at the turn of the century in the banking business in Ithaca. He moved to New York, and there had charge of the legal and corporation work of Halsey and Company. In 1914 he opened his own law offices. In 1919 he was appointed vice-president of the National Bank of Commerce, now the Guaranty Trust Company. He became a partner in the investment banking house of Estabrook and Company in 1922, and retained this connection for 27 years until his retirement in 1949.

Mr. Williams was at one time financial and legal adviser to the late Charles R. Crane, the manufacturer and diplomat. Through Mr. Crane’s connection with Czechoslovakia as the first American Minister at Prague, Mr. Williams was designated to work with the late Jan Masaryk, first Premier of the Republic, in the capacity of educational adviser.

One of Mr. Williams’s staunchest loyalties was to Cornell University. He was a son of a widely known Cornell professor of geology and spent his boyhood days in Ithaca. He graduated from Cornell in 1895, and later served for many years as a member of the University Board of Trustees. For some time he was chairman of the Board’s Investment Committee. At the time of his death in 1950 he was a Trustee Emeritus, still regularly attending the Board’s meetings.

George W. Martin
1951/1952 Century Association Yearbook