O. Jay Williams was born in Spearman, Texas in 1935 and spent
his youth in Hondo, Texas. Williams was a three-sport athlete
at Hondo High School competing in football, baseball, and
basketball. His leadership skills led to him being named team
captain of both the basketball and football teams during his senior
year. Williams was recognized for his achievements on the
football field, being named to the All-District team during both
his junior and senior year as well as being named to the 1952
All-State team. Williams was not the only Hondo resident to
migrate south to the University of Corpus Christi. Life long
friends and teammates Lloyd Lindeburg and Lloyd Muennink would
attend UCC as well.
O. Jay Williams arrived in Corpus Christi in August of
1953 receiving a full scholarship to play football. As was
often the case, Williams competed and excelled in more than one
sport during his stint at UCC. He lettered in both football
and track all four years he played serving as captain of the
football team his junior and senior year. Williams graduated
in June of 1958 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum
Engineering. He married Charlotte Swatzell upon graduation
and joined the U.S. Navy as an Ensign in the Naval Officers
Corps.
Williams dedicated the next 20 years of his life to his
country serving in the United States Navy. His served as a
Combat Information Officer responsible for monitoring, identifying,
and reporting ship and air traffic entering the U.S. between Midway
Island and the Aleutian Chain. His academic background
allowed him to convert from Naval Aviation to the Navy Civil
Engineer Corps where he served in various military commands.
From 1968 through 1969, Williams served as the Executive Officer of
a 1200-man Seabee Construction Battalion in the Republic of Vietnam
in support of the Third Marine Corps Division in the Northern I
Corps. The battalion he led was responsible for construction
of Naval Air Bases, major highways, hospitals, forward landing
bases, and the construction of Marine Corps Bases, all under
wartime conditions.
In the 1970’s he served in a number of different
positions for the United States Navy. From 1970-1973 he was
the Seabee Program Officer for two Reserve Construction
Battalions. His next stop was in Key West, Fl., where he
served as the Assistant Public Works Officer at the Naval Base and
Naval Air Station. He headed to the west coast from 1976-1978
were he was the Deputy Director and Construction Project Engineer
for the Naval Petroleum Reserves in California (NPRC).
Williams retired from the Navy in December of 1978 with a number
of honors including the National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam
Presidential Unit Citation, Navy Unit Citation, Meritorious Unit
Citation, Vietnam Service Medal w/one Silver Star, Republic of
Vietnam Armed Forces Meritorious Unit Citation (Gallantry Cross),
and Vietnam Campaign Medal. In 1975, he was selected as a
Deacon in the Baptist Church.
Williams was very successful during his 20 years of
military, but may have been even more successful in the private
sector. The Navy requested and Williams agreed to serve in a
very similar capacity as Deputy Director of the Naval Petroleum
Reserves (NPR-1) in California. He oversaw an incredible
46,000-acre oil field, which was originally earmarked by Congress
in 1912 as an emergency oil supply for the U.S. Military Forces in
the event of war. The field remained “shut in”
for 64 years until Congress decided that it should be “opened
up” to commercial production. The field was rated as
the largest oil and gas producing field in California and the
second largest in the United States. On July 3, 1976, the
field was placed on production with initial production from the
field in excess of 180,000 barrels of oil and 360 million cubic
feet of gas per day. Estimated reserves of the field at
open-up were 1 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 3 trillion
cubic feet of recoverable gas. At open-up, revenues to the
government from the sale of oil and gas, averaged 4.5 million
dollars a day at a time when oil was selling for $15 a barrel.
During the 21 years he was associated with NPR-1, revenues averaged
an astounding 2.1 million dollars a day. Williams was rated a
GS-15, which was the highest rating a Federal employee could hold
at the time. He spent the last 4 years (1996-1999) of
his professional career as the Director of the Department of
Energy’s Petroleum Reserve, a position which was rated at a
Senior Executive Service 5 level, once again the highest level of a
Federal employee.
He was recognized for his success as a civilian as well as the
numerous military awards. Then Secretary of Energy Frederico
Pena, authored a letter of commendation for cumulative sales in
excess of 16 billion dollars to the U.S. Treasurer. Assistant
Secretary of Energy for Fossil Energy recognized Williams for his
maximization of revenue to the government prior to the sale of
NPR-1. Finally, in July 1999, Williams was awarded the
Distinguished Career Service award by the DOE Secretary of
Energy.
Williams is most proud of his children’s
accomplishments. Steven is the Director of Houchin Cotton
International in Sinapore; Rodney is the Technical Manager for
Frontier Business Machines in Anchorage, Alaska; Tyrel is the
Director of School Construction for the San Jose (CA.) Unified
School District, and Lisa is a Manager of Software Engineering for
Valueclick.com in Santa Barbara, California.
