Accountant, Investment advisor, NYU instructor, and world traveler. Fund at The Trust supports a variety of New York City nonprofits.
Robert I. Williams (1904-1995)
Lucille B. Williams (1928-2011)
Robert Irving Williams was the quintessential accountant. He graduated in accounting from New York University in 1934 and taught accounting classes at NYU’s Stern School of Business for more than three decades. He also wrote certified public accounting exams and was co-editor of the five-volume Encyclopedia of Accounting Systems (1956-57). Plus, he was a founding partner of one of the largest accounting firms in the country.
Robert was born July 15, 1913, in Manhattan, to John Ingersoll and Ella Artus Williams. In August 1939, he married Patricia Margaret Flanagan, a teacher in New York City’s public schools, and they had four sons and a daughter. He also became stepfather to her daughter and son. Their marriage ended in divorce.
In 1945, Robert and his business partner, Frederick A. Schutte, founded Schutte & Williams at 11 Broadway in Manhattan. In 1965, it was ranked as one of the top 100 accounting firms in America. The firm merged with Pannell Kerr Forster (now PKF) in 1970. Robert became a partner in the new firm and, later, an investment advisor and consultant.
In 1953, Robert bought property on Shelter Island, where the family spent summer vacations. The parcel “came with a modest house, a couple of sheds, and 500 chickens,” recalled their youngest son, Art, who moved to the island in 1993 and served two terms as Town Supervisor. “It was especially paradise for kids,” Art said in an interview with the Shelter Island Reporter.
When he wasn’t analyzing financial statements and consulting on investments, Robert supported the arts and city parks, and traveled the world. He encouraged others to explore as well.
He was a founding board member of the Joyce Theater, a dance performance venue in Chelsea whose executive director, Linda Shelton, praised him for “providing invaluable financial and legal guidance during the theater’s critical planning phase.” He supported the Lighthouse Guild, the Central Park Conservancy, and the New York Botanical Garden, and served as a trustee of the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust.
Robert loved to travel and was a member of the Circumnavigators Club, an exclusive group of adventurers who journeyed around the globe. Any means will do, according to the club’s website—as long as you start and end in the same place, hit two spots on opposite sides of the planet, and travel more than 24,900 miles in the same direction, preferably continuously. Robert was president of the club’s foundation, which sponsors an around-the-world study program for students, when he passed away on December 12, 1995. He was 82. His second wife, Lucille, died in October 2011.
The Robert & Lucille Williams Funds is unrestricted and supports Freedom Agenda, Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, and Nazareth Housing.