Richard D. WILLIAMS
1946 - 2022
RICHARD WILLIAMS OBITUARY
Richard Williams was born on August 30, 1946, in Hollywood, California. He passed away quietly at his home in Newport Beach, California, on November 14, 2022, after a years-long battle with cancer. Rick's mother, Joanne Dessert Williams, was an aspiring and busy young actress in Hollywood in the 1940s, and his father, Al Williams, was a sports writer for the Los Angeles Times in those early years. Rick was a fourth-generation descendant of the Victor Dessert family of Spokane, Washington.
The Dessert family was a founding family in Spokane, dating back to the 1880s when Victor Sr. arrived in the United States from Alsace-Lorraine in France. Victor Sr. was a blacksmith who relocated to Spokane. Over two generations, Victor and later his son Victor Dessert, Jr. developed a substantial business of real estate activity, and owned and operated the well-known network of Dessert Hotels in Spokane and throughout the Inland Empire. Many residents to this very day still remember the landmark Dessert Oasis restaurant in the Dessert Hotel located in downtown Spokane.
The young Williams family relocated back from California to Spokane in 1948 to reunite with the Dessert family and to run the family hotel business. Spokane was flourishing in those days, and Rick grew up in his early days in the Victor Dessert, Jr. home on Rockwood Boulevard. That house and grounds have been beautifully restored as a historical preservation site with the house and expansive gardens visible from the street below. The 1940s and 1950s – such a wonderful high-water mark in the life of our country!
Rick Williams attended Lewis & Clark High School (Class of 1965) and Washington State University, where he received his BA degree Beta Gamma Sigma in Business Finance in 1969.
After graduation from Washington State, Rick was hired by Shell Oil Corporation as an analyst in their corporate finance group in Los Angeles. From there, he attended law school at UCLA, where he was a member of the UCLA Law Review. Rick Williams began his 50-year legal career as a world-class trial lawyer in Southern California in 1973, working with several of the premier law firms in the country. He was a grinder who was always on the job for his many clients. Rick finished his career as a founding partner of the law firm Williams, Wollitz, Hakakian PC, working actively right up to the date of his death. His law firm is his professional legacy.
Rick was a dynamic political freedom activist as part and parcel of his vibrant law practice. He was a supporter of numerous freedom-oriented candidates for office over the years, and he carried out his own campaign for the United States Senate in California, finishing fourth in a field of 26 candidates. Rick received nearly two hundred thousand votes in his campaign throughout the State of California.
Rick Williams never lost touch with his Spokane roots during his decades in California. He had grown up as a young boy at Liberty Lake in the summers, and in later years, maintained his own home in Rockford Bay on Lake Coeur d'Alene in Idaho. Rick kept in touch over the years with many friends and classmates from Lewis and Clark until his cancer limited his travel at the end of his life.
Rick Williams lived his life as a man of two worlds – Southern California as the base of his business, law practice, and political activism; and Spokane as his never-to-be-forgotten home from the early years. Rick is survived by his wife Susan in Newport Beach, his brother Fred Williams in Spokane, his sister Georgilu Krom in Seattle, and a variety of other relatives in California.
A hard worker, lawyer, and a consistent and longstanding advocate for truth and justice in America, Rick Williams will be remembered by all who knew him. His ashes will be maintained in the Dessert family mausoleum at Greenwood Memorial Cemetery in Spokane.
Published by Spokesman-Review on Nov. 15, 2022.
1946 - 2022
RICHARD WILLIAMS OBITUARY
Richard Williams was born on August 30, 1946, in Hollywood, California. He passed away quietly at his home in Newport Beach, California, on November 14, 2022, after a years-long battle with cancer. Rick's mother, Joanne Dessert Williams, was an aspiring and busy young actress in Hollywood in the 1940s, and his father, Al Williams, was a sports writer for the Los Angeles Times in those early years. Rick was a fourth-generation descendant of the Victor Dessert family of Spokane, Washington.
The Dessert family was a founding family in Spokane, dating back to the 1880s when Victor Sr. arrived in the United States from Alsace-Lorraine in France. Victor Sr. was a blacksmith who relocated to Spokane. Over two generations, Victor and later his son Victor Dessert, Jr. developed a substantial business of real estate activity, and owned and operated the well-known network of Dessert Hotels in Spokane and throughout the Inland Empire. Many residents to this very day still remember the landmark Dessert Oasis restaurant in the Dessert Hotel located in downtown Spokane.
The young Williams family relocated back from California to Spokane in 1948 to reunite with the Dessert family and to run the family hotel business. Spokane was flourishing in those days, and Rick grew up in his early days in the Victor Dessert, Jr. home on Rockwood Boulevard. That house and grounds have been beautifully restored as a historical preservation site with the house and expansive gardens visible from the street below. The 1940s and 1950s – such a wonderful high-water mark in the life of our country!
Rick Williams attended Lewis & Clark High School (Class of 1965) and Washington State University, where he received his BA degree Beta Gamma Sigma in Business Finance in 1969.
After graduation from Washington State, Rick was hired by Shell Oil Corporation as an analyst in their corporate finance group in Los Angeles. From there, he attended law school at UCLA, where he was a member of the UCLA Law Review. Rick Williams began his 50-year legal career as a world-class trial lawyer in Southern California in 1973, working with several of the premier law firms in the country. He was a grinder who was always on the job for his many clients. Rick finished his career as a founding partner of the law firm Williams, Wollitz, Hakakian PC, working actively right up to the date of his death. His law firm is his professional legacy.
Rick was a dynamic political freedom activist as part and parcel of his vibrant law practice. He was a supporter of numerous freedom-oriented candidates for office over the years, and he carried out his own campaign for the United States Senate in California, finishing fourth in a field of 26 candidates. Rick received nearly two hundred thousand votes in his campaign throughout the State of California.
Rick Williams never lost touch with his Spokane roots during his decades in California. He had grown up as a young boy at Liberty Lake in the summers, and in later years, maintained his own home in Rockford Bay on Lake Coeur d'Alene in Idaho. Rick kept in touch over the years with many friends and classmates from Lewis and Clark until his cancer limited his travel at the end of his life.
Rick Williams lived his life as a man of two worlds – Southern California as the base of his business, law practice, and political activism; and Spokane as his never-to-be-forgotten home from the early years. Rick is survived by his wife Susan in Newport Beach, his brother Fred Williams in Spokane, his sister Georgilu Krom in Seattle, and a variety of other relatives in California.
A hard worker, lawyer, and a consistent and longstanding advocate for truth and justice in America, Rick Williams will be remembered by all who knew him. His ashes will be maintained in the Dessert family mausoleum at Greenwood Memorial Cemetery in Spokane.
Published by Spokesman-Review on Nov. 15, 2022.
