Alaska newsman Lew Williams Jr. was voice for state
By Steve Quinn, Associated Press
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
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He wrote columns for one of the smallest newspapers in Alaska - the Ketchikan Daily News - but Lew Williams Jr.'s reputation for a strong editorial voice commanded the respect of lawmakers in Juneau and Washington, D.C., and university leaders in Fairbanks.
A retired publisher who continued writing columns until a few weeks ago, Mr. Williams died Saturday of cancer at age 83, bequeathing an editorial voice so memorable that U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, spoke of his friend on the Senate floor Tuesday.
Mr. Williams' son, Lew Williams III, said his father had been feeling ill since fall but didn't get his diagnosis until a few weeks ago.
He died while vacationing in Arizona a few days after he had been scheduled to return to Ketchikan.
Mr. Williams had been involved in journalism and state affairs for nearly 60 years, his family said. He and his wife, Dorothy, published newspapers in the Alaska towns of Wrangell, Petersburg, Sitka and Ketchikan.
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