Walter F. Williams

Walter F. Williams, who worked his way through the ranks of Bethlehem Steel to become chief executive and chairman from 1986-92, died Saturday November 28 2015 in a retirement community in Palm City, Fla. The longtime resident of Lower Saucon Township was 86. After graduating from the University of Delaware in 1951, Williams was hired into Bethlehem Steel's "Loop Course," a management training program that required a recent college graduate to learn every facet of Steel's operations. Williams was a straight-talking, roll-up-your-sleeves engineer who spent virtually his entire career in operations or shipbuilding. He'd helped design Burns Harbor, Bethlehem Steel's most profitable plant. In 1990, Forbes magazine named him one of Corporate America's Most Powerful People. But the company's downfall was inevitable, and despite years of Williams' attempts to reverse it, the plant closings and layoffs continued in Bethlehem and across the globe. A company that once employed 283,000 workers worldwide, including 31,000 in Bethlehem, had by 1990 dwindled to 30,000 worldwide and just more than 4,300 in Bethlehem. In 1992, a disillusioned Williams stepped down, disappointed that he couldn't do more to stop the bleeding. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Joan Carey Williams and two sons, Jeffrey F. Williams and Richard C. Williams.