 It is with great reverence and our sincerest condolences that SEAA announces the passing of Eddie Williams. From his beginning as a rebar laborer in 1952 to Chairman of the Board of Buckner Companies, Eddie Williams devoted his life to the betterment of the steel construction industry. He was one of the founding fathers of SEAA and he was instrumental in ensuring the organization’s success through the decades. To honor him, the SEAA Board of Directors voted on January 17, to name the annual Person of the Year award after him. “We would not be the organization we are today without his guiding influence. We chose to rebrand the award as ‘The Eddie’ as an acknowledgement of the devotion Eddie Williams had to this association for the purpose of improving the ironworking profession,” said David Deem, Deem Structural Services, and member of SEAA’s Executive Committee. In 1972, a small, local group of North and South Carolina steel erectors formed a non-profit organization that was then known as the Steel Erectors Association of the Carolinas (SEAC). This entity was the precursor to what is now a national organization—the Steel Erectors Association of America. Eddie Williams, then with CP Buckner Steel Erection, served as President of this fledgling group. When the need arose, he stepped in again in 1980 and 2003 to lead the board of directors. In 2005, he received SEAA’s William Davis Service Award for his lifetime dedication to improving the industry.
A longtime proponent of the importance of training, Eddie Williams often argued that “a rising tide, raises all ships” when advocating for erectors to invest in training at a time when many contractors feared losing their investment if ironworkers left to go work for the competition. Today, SEAA’s ironworker training and apprenticeship programs are a legacy of Eddie Williams’ vision for the industry. You can read more about Eddie Williams here and here. Click here to view the obituary and service arrangements. Comments are closed.
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