Obituary of J. Wayman Williams

J. Wayman Williams, Jr., one of the remaining members of the Greatest Generation, entered the Church Triumphant on April 11th, 2020, a month after celebrating his 94th birthday. He died after a bout with kidney cancer with his wife of nearly 65 years, Patti, in his presence in their senior living community in Basking Ridge, NJ. Wayman was born on March 4, 1926 to James Wayman and May Lengnick Williams and was raised in Webster Groves, MO. A child of the Great Depression, he excelled at Webster Groves High. When he was accepted shortly after his 17th birthday to Princeton University, he left high school early, boarded a train, and headed to New Jersey. After completing his freshman engineering studies, he was drafted into the Army during World War II and left for basic training at Camp Hood, TX in the summer of 1944. After finishing Officer Candidate School in the Corps of Engineers, he was sent to the Philippines to help start the rebuilding process. He was honorably discharged in 1947 and returned to Princeton, where in addition to his civil engineering studies, he became well-known for his photographic acumen, and earned him the nickname “Flash”. He was the engineering representative on the Undergraduate Council, was chairman of the Bric-A-Brac, Princeton’s yearbook, and earned spending money by using his photographic skills to string for the Associated Press and New York Times. With his civil engineering degree in hand in May of 1950, he took a job working on the original Chesapeake Bay Bridge. After a couple of years, he moved back to New Jersey for a job with Sika Chemical in Lyndhurst. He started to attend services at the First Presbyterian Church in Passaic, where he met Patricia Zimmermann, and the two began dating. It was not long before they were engaged, and they got married on September 9, 1955 in the church. They used the GI bill to buy a home in Glen Rock, NJ shortly thereafter, and they became active in the neighborhood activities. Their first son, James Wayman III (Jay) was born in 1958, and Jeffrey Bruce followed in 1960. During this time, Wayman took a job with Poclain, a heavy construction company based in France, and he and Patti were able to make several memorable trips to Europe, all documented with plenty of slides and 8 mm movies. He was then charged with designing a new headquarters building for the company in Piscataway, NJ, and the family moved to Basking Ridge, NJ in 1968, a home where they lived for 51 years. In picking their home in Basking Ridge, Wayman wanted it to be within walking distance from the Presbyterian Church so that Patti, who does not drive, could walk there. They became ensconced in the Church, with Wayman serving as an elder and was the de facto photographer for the church until about six months ago. Upon moving to Basking Ridge, Wayman re-designed the entire house, and building a pool, which became a social gathering spot for his family and friends. He would take a dip in the pool early every morning well into his 80’s. Hosting numerous pool parties was a rite of summer and something he thoroughly enjoyed, and he loved seeing his sons’ friends as well as the youth groups from the church. He particularly reveled in taking unsuspecting young people on thrilling tandem rides down the large hill at the adjacent Oak Street School. In the winter, that hill was the sledding center of Basking Ridge, and until his mid-80’s Wayman enjoyed showing youngsters how to make airplanes and trains with sleds, to the delight of the kids and the astonishment of their parents! During his time in Basking Ridge, he worked for several companies involved in automated rack supported buildings, and also formed his own consulting firm. Much of his time was spent photographing buildings and bridges around the world for the Civil Engineering department at Princeton, which he really enjoyed. It kept him in touch with a number of his Princeton friends, and “Flash” was also a regular at Reunions, and particularly enjoyed it when he became a member of the Old Guard starting at his 65th. He also was an early adapter to the Apple computer and produced many books for people on various subjects from engineering to ministry. Most of all, Wayman enjoyed being with his family. He attended as many events as he could of his sons, four grandchildren, and extended family, always with camera in hand, with computer sheets of photos arriving in the mail shortly thereafter. He also loved travelling, whether is be the 1973 cross country trip with the family, with various “paying work” along the way, or his trips to Europe with Patti and other couples. This belied the fact that he was a man who loved to sleep in his own bed – he loved his home that he lived in until August 2019, when they moved to Fellowship Village. In addition to his beloved wife, Patti, he is survived by Jay and his wife, Melanie, and Jeff and his wife, Susan, and four grandchildren – Adam, Mitch and his wife, Erin, James Wayman IV (Jimmy) and Tricia. All the men except Jay have engineering degrees, to Wayman’s delight. In addition, Wayman is survived by his sister-in-law, Barbara Hassert, brother-in-law, Charles “Pete” MacVeagh, seven nephews and two nieces, and numerous great nephews and nieces. He is pre-deceased by his sister, Patricia MacVeagh. A memorial service will be planned for later this summer at the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church. In lieu of flowers, a donation can be made to the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church, 1 East Oak St., Basking Ridge, NJ 07920. For further information, or to leave an online condolence message please visit www.gcfuneralhome.com