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Scholarship, Tennis Tournament Honor Memory of Student
Scholarship, Tennis Tournament Honor Memory of Student
“As we look back on Curt’s time at BSC, we realize that he acted as if every day was a special day to him, and thus he was driven to live each day to its fullest.” – The Southern Accent, 1996
During his first month as a freshman on the Birmingham-Southern College campus in 1994, Curt Williams wrote a letter to his parents in Tennessee -- the kind of letter every parent wants to read.
“He told us that he’d made more friends in one month at BSC than he thought he’d made his whole life,” Curt’s father Jim Williams remembers fondly.
That first year was filled with joy for Curt and happy relief for his parents.
“When the kids were growing up, Curt was the one who had the most problems feeling accepted,” Williams says. “Tennis came to his rescue. He was able to start playing tennis in his middle school against the guys who were so unkind to him. Tennis gave his life new value.”
And tennis eventually led him to BSC.
“BSC was perfect for him socially, academically, and for tennis. He found love and acceptance from peers. He was Sigma Chi pledge of the year. At the end of his freshman year, he was voted captain of the tennis team for his sophomore year,” Williams says. “Nothing could have been better.”
It is that joy – of having found a home on the Hilltop, of celebrating purpose and potential – that Curt’s parents and sister have endeavored to keep alive since November 1995, when his life was tragically cut short by a traffic accident caused by a drunk driver.
“There is no way to put into words how a family feels when they lose a child,” Williams says. “But we knew how much he loved Birmingham-Southern College. We knew we wanted to keep his memory alive on campus.”
In 1996, the family established the James Curtis Williams Jr. Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded to a rising sophomore based on a personal essay, demonstrated academic performance, and financial need demonstrated by the student working a part-time job during the academic year.
“Meeting them is what really shows us how they embody the spirit of Birmingham-Southern in the way that we feel Curt did,” Beth Martin says. “It became his happy place where all his dreams came true. He met people who would have been his best friends forever. We look for students who come to Birmingham-Southern and throw themselves into it, giving back through sports or Greek life. We want those kids who are giving back to the school to have something given to them.”
Curt’s mother, Carol Williams, says the scholarship was initially created with Curt’s roommate, Chris Forsyth, in mind.
“Curt was always worried that Chris was spending so much time working to cover his tuition that he was not paying enough time to his studies. So, when we crafted the rules for the scholarship, the first rule was that it be need-based and the individual be working part-time to help out.”
Vinny Torres, a business major from New York City, is the 2017 recipient of the Curt Williams Scholarship.
“Attending college is never going to be cheap, so their donations mean a lot. It allows my family to not have to worry about my financial situation,” Torres says. A member of the baseball team, Mr. Torres works part-time maintaining the fields and facility through the federal Work-Study program.
Torres met the Williams family for the first time in 2016, and says they are “awesome people.”
“They really care about BSC and the students who go here. To be able to attend such an institution at BSC because of the Williams family is something I’m very grateful for,” he says.
Three years ago, the family created the Annual Curt Williams Memorial Tennis Tournament, held each fall at BSC. During the 3rd annual event in September, the Williams family matched every donation made to the Curt Williams Scholarship Fund that weekend.
Jim Williams says that visiting with students at a dinner held the first night of the tournament weekend is healing for both him and his wife. Each year he urges them to value every day of their lives. “Value that you have a gift that you can play tennis. You have a group to play with,” he tells the students. “Value every moment of this experience.”
Carol Williams says that creating the tournament was a further extension of wanting to contribute to the other joy in Curt’s life, the tennis team, where he found a second family, and to tennis coach Ann Dielen, whom she calls his “second mother.”
“The candidates we are always impressed with the most are the ones that do some homework and find out who Curt was,” his mother says. “I always leave these interviews thinking how proud Curt would be of us for doing this.”
Beth Martin, who was 16 when her brother died, says it’s been incredibly special to visit BSC each year during the tournament, and to introduce her young daughters to the place where “Uncle Curt” went to school.
“The tournament and the scholarship give us the ability to celebrate his life,” she says. “And that makes all the difference.”
Carol Williams says that finding a way to give to others in Curt’s name is healing.
“That is the blessing for me in having the scholarship and tournament, allowing me to remember him as he was in his last years of life – handsome, healthy, and most importantly happy.”
To support the James Curtis Williams Jr. Scholarship or for information about creating a scholarship in memory of a loved one: Sarah-Kate Roberts, 205-226-4979; [email protected]