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Williams Family Honors Son Sandy with Scholarships for Scientists

Since the day their son enrolled in Duke University School of Medicine in 1970, Charlotte L. and Claude Williams, Jr. have continually been impressed with the thoroughness, flexibility, and opportunities that a Duke education and training afforded him.

“It has opened avenues so he could do anything in the world he wanted to,” says Charlotte. “That says a lot for Duke Medicine: That you are able to follow your dreams.”

It is the marriage of pride for their son, Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs R. Sanders “Sandy” Williams, MD'74, HS'77-'79, and their deep desire to help young scientists that led the Williamses to donate 20,000 shares of Wachovia Bank stock valued at just over one million dollars to fund The R. Sanders (Sandy) Williams Medical Scientist Scholarship Fund through a charitable gift annuity.

The scholarship endowment will benefit MD/PhD and Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) students in the School of Medicine.

Preparing Duke medical students for the globalized, personalized medicine of the future is something that Sandy Williams is especially passionate about.

“Duke has long been a pioneering institution in encouraging physicians to complement their clinical training with extended periods of rigorous laboratory science,” he says. “I believe the best biomedical science and the best medicine occur in an environment where fundamental biology and clinical medicine come closer together.”

The MD/PhD program's purpose is to add a significant research component to medical education, training physician-scientists (MD/PhDs) for high-level research careers in the medical sciences and in academic medicine.

Graduates of Duke's more than 40-year-old program go on to significant roles in biomedical research and academic medicine. They populate biomedical research institutions and academic institutions throughout the United States.

The Duke MSTP is a partnership program with the National Institutes of Health. The Duke program is one of the most diverse in the country with an underrepresented minority enrollment of 13 percent and a current female enrollment of 42 percent.

“From the early days Sandy's interest has been in research. He always wanted to be in academic and not private practice medicine,” Claude says. “We talked to him about this (gift) and he said he'd like it to support young medical scientists.”

“This major gift from my wonderful and loving parents will offer opportunities to future medical students,” says Sandy. “Without such philanthropic support, our ability to provide such an experience to students is quite limited."

Claude, 85, is a former small-town media entrepreneur who owned part of a community radio station and community newspaper and later was principal owner of an outdoor advertising business. He says with a laugh that there came a time when “I borrowed so much money from banks that I wanted to see what it looked like from the other side.”

So he started a community bank--Georgia National--that was eventually bought by South Trust, whcih was later bought by Wachovia Bank.

He is a graduate of the University of Georgia-Athens (UGA) ROTC Program and spent 36 months in active duty during World War II.

Charlotte earned masters and doctoral degrees at UGA and was on the College of Education faculty there for 17 years in the Division for Exceptional Children before retiring in the early 1980s.

“As parents we really owe something to Duke,” Charlotte says, “We strongly believe in supporting students in training. It's a long, hard road.”

One thing they have learned over the years, they say, is that government grants for scientific research do not provide enough funding to support long-term research projects.

“This gift will provide dollars that can be counted on,” Claude says.