Gurney Williams. Source: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/170633.Gurney_Williams_III
Yale University. Photo: Pradipta Mitra, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yale_Law_School_in_the_Sterling_Law_Building.jpg)
Columbia University. Photo: Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Columbia_University_-_Low_Memorial_Library_(48170370506).jpg)
Sarah Lawrence College. Photo: Alison Nieman, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RGT-SLC-10.2016.jpg)
Yale University. Photo: Pradipta Mitra, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yale_Law_School_in_the_Sterling_Law_Building.jpg)
Columbia University. Photo: Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Columbia_University_-_Low_Memorial_Library_(48170370506).jpg)
Sarah Lawrence College. Photo: Alison Nieman, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RGT-SLC-10.2016.jpg)
Gurney Williams III was born on June 12, 1941, in New York City. He was the son of Gurney Williams Jr. and Lois Williams, who was born Jones.
He was born in a city that was then the largest in the United States and a leading center of magazine and newspaper publishing, the industry in which he later built his career.
Gurney Williams III received a bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1963 and a Master of Science from Columbia University in 1967. Yale, founded in 1701 in the Connecticut colony, is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the United States, and its undergraduate college has long been built on a liberal arts foundation.
Columbia, chartered in 1754 as King's College, is a private university in New York City. His master's degree from Columbia was completed in the same year he began his reporting career at Newsday, linking his graduate study directly to his entry into New York's newspaper and magazine world.
Gurney Williams III began his professional career as a reporter and editor at Newsday in Garden City, New York, from 1967 to 1970. Newsday, founded in 1940, served readers on Long Island and became one of the region's major daily newspapers.
From 1970 to 1978 he worked as a self-employed writer in Bronxville, New York, a village in Westchester County. Freelance writing in this period meant selling work to several editors and publications rather than holding a single staff post.
From 1978 to 1981 he was features editor at Popular Mechanics in New York City. The magazine, founded in 1902 in Chicago, covered science, technology, and practical mechanical subjects for a general readership.
From 1981 to 1986 he worked at Omni magazine in New York City. Omni, launched in 1978, combined articles on science and parapsychology with science fiction and fantasy fiction, and it was published in print until 1995. Goodreads and ISFDB records show that he was co-editor with Ellen Datlow, the magazine's fiction editor, from July 1984 until May 1986.
After leaving Omni in 1986, he worked as a self-employed journalist and lecturer based in Rye, New York. From 1987 to 1997 he served as a consultant to Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville. Founded in 1926, the college is a private liberal arts institution with a progressive educational tradition.
His books include The Zero People (1974), a science fiction story for young readers, and Movie Man (1975). He also co-wrote Introduction to Children's Literature with Joan I. Glazer, published by McGraw-Hill in 1979, and co-wrote the children's book Henry and the Hidden Veggie Garden with his daughter, the actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley, in 2008.
(Anthology of selected material from Rudder, a boating mag...)
1977(Children's book co-written with his daughter, the actress...)
2008(Story for young readers illustrated by Erich Barnes and p...)
1975Twins: A First Book
(Children's book credited to Gurney Williams III.)
(Nonfiction collection presenting seven accounts of escape...)
1978(Book about careers in writing, published in 1976.)
1976(Science fiction story for young readers, published by Sch...)
1974(Textbook co-written with Joan I. Glazer and published by ...)
1979Gurney Williams III was an Episcopalian. The Episcopal Church is the Anglican community in the United States, tracing its origins to the Church of England and organizing as an independent church after the American Revolution. Its worship is centered on the Book of Common Prayer, and its parishes are governed partly by lay leaders.
His documented involvement in church life included co-founding a youth group at Christ's Church in Rye in 1997 and serving as senior warden of the parish from 2000 to 2001. The senior warden is a lay office in Episcopal parishes, which places him among the laity who share responsibility for parish governance with the clergy.
Gurney Williams III was a member of the American Society Journalists and Authors. The American Society of Journalists and Authors is a professional association founded in 1948 to serve freelance writers and nonfiction authors, providing a professional community for writers who work independently of staff positions.
He served as vice-chair of the Samaritan Counseling Center in Rye in 1992, a board role in a community counseling organization. This service took place during the years when he was working as a self-employed journalist and lecturer in Rye.
At Christ's Church in Rye, an Episcopal parish, he took part in parish leadership and youth work. He co-founded a youth group there in 1997 and later held the office of senior warden, which connected him with the parish's lay governance.
Gurney Williams III married Linda Payne on June 24, 1967. The couple had three children, Kimberly, Jay, and Ashley.
His daughter Kimberly Williams-Paisley is an actress, and she co-wrote the children's book Henry and the Hidden Veggie Garden with him. The book, published in 2008, is one of the documented collaborations between father and daughter.
His parents were Gurney Williams Jr. and Lois Williams, who was born Jones.
