Education
Williams attended University High School in Oakland, then San Mateo Junior College (now College of San Mateo).
Williams attended University High School in Oakland, then San Mateo Junior College (now College of San Mateo).
As recorded on his birth certificate, his name is Archie and not Archibald. Soon Williams transferred to the University of California, Berkeley to become a mechanical engineer and he continued to run track. Until 1936, Williams had never broken 49 seconds for the 440 yd (402 m).
During 1936, however, Williams kept lowering his times and reached his peak at the National Collegiate Athletic Association championships, setting a world record in 400 m of 46.1.
His time was set in the preliminaries and he also prevailed in the final for a 47.0 victory. When asked about the infamous incident in which Adolf Hitler reportedly refused to shake the hand of black fellow gold medalist Jesse Owens, Williams replied, “Hitler wouldn"t shake my hand either.”
After graduating from University of California Berkeley with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Archie Williams was in the first Civilian Pilot Training class in 1939 at Oakland, California. After earning his private pilot"s license, he earned his instructor rating and was later a civilian instructor at Tuskegee.
Entering the service in late 1942, he was one of only 14 African-Americans who were commissioned during World World War II in the aviation meteorological cadet program Archie graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles program on 6 September 1943.
By September 1944, he was in the first Service Pilot training class at Tuskegee and, after graduation, instructed flight cadets in instrument flying as well as teaching meteorology.
After the war, he earned qualification as a line pilot and then attended the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1948-1950 earning a Bachelor of Surgery in Engineering Sciences. He and fellow Tuskegee meteorologist Milton Hopkins were the 3rd and 4th black Air Force officers to attend this prestigious program Archie Williams remained a weather officer and rated pilot his entire career, earning his command pilot rating and commanding several weather detachments before retirement from the Air Force in 1964.
A serious leg injury at a meet in Sweden in 1936 ended his running career, but he became a commercial pilot.
During World World War II, which Williams once whimsically referred to as his “return to the Olympics—in the Pacific,” Williams was a pilot in the Air Force and retired from the military 22 years later as a lieutenant colonel. A flight instructor while in the Air Force, Williams remained in education following his military retirement and taught mathematics and computers in California high schools.
He was noted for his love for teaching and helping students. He died in Fairfax, California aged 78.
Quotation: “When I came home, somebody asked me, ‘How did those dirty Nazis treat you?’ I replied that I didn’t see any dirty Nazis, just a lot of nice German people.
And I didn’t have to ride in the back of the bus over there.”.
Williams was a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.