Walter Williams passed last night or this morning. I spend the first hour of the morning crying, gave my course lecture with dry eyes, then cried some more.
My first “paper talk” was in Prof Williams’ PhD micro course, discussing a Demsetz paper. I bombed terribly, nervous, over-prepared, drawing a panicked blank. Prof Williams calmly asked me questions, drawing me out of my panic-fugue.
The next morning after giving that talk, my wife and I eloped. Prof Williams bragged during the first year PhD Christmas party, which he hosted at The Green Turtle pub in downtown Fairfax, that two of his students met in his class and got married. My wife and I had been together over a year before taking his class, but we never corrected him.
Today, I’m being asked regularly to speak out publicly on issues of the day. It’s a stark contrast between that first panicked paper talk and now, but sometimes when journalists and hosts ask me questions, I think about Prof Williams calmly guiding my own knowledge out of me so I could share it with others.
I’m so lucky to have had Walter Williams as my professor. I can still hear him in my head persuading and guiding and sometimes cajoling us with his vast and deep knowledge, his experience, and his wisdom.
I hope to never lose the sound of that voice.
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