-= NMSU PANORAMA - Summer 2006 =- Aggie Lesislators: For Dub Williams, education is a passion

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For Dub Williams, education is a passion

By Mary Benanti '84

State Rep. Walter C. Williams ’55 has something in common with President George W. Bush besides being a Republican politician. Both often are referred to by their nicknames. Williams is known as “Dub,” which is short for W. C., the moniker he grew up with, and “Dubya” is for … well, you know.

Williams, who represents District 56, is a 1955 graduate of New Mexico State University – only then it was known as New Mexico A & M. He had a degree in business administration and came back to become certified to teach so he could join his wife Kathryn ’51 in that profession. She earned her degree in home economics.

Over the years, A & M became NMSU. And not only has the name changed, but so has the area. Williams says when he arrived after a stint in the U.S. Navy, he was greeted by a sign that read, “10,000 friendly people welcome you to Las Cruces.”

“Now look,” he says. “Look how Las Cruces has grown.”

So has Ruidoso, he says, where he and Kathryn taught for decades and where they still own a small farm and cattle ranch of about 90 acres. While Kathryn was teaching young people how to sew and cook, “Dub” was teaching science to seventh- and eighth-graders.

When he retired from teaching, he turned to the state Legislature. While he might have left the classroom behind, education was in his blood. And all that growth in the state had put a strain on its education system. As a result of his passion for teaching, he has served nearly 12 years as a representative and remained a member of the education committee.

“It’s been my main focus, a big issue,” he says. “And it’s costly. Half the budget of the state goes into education if you look at it from K-college.”

One item in particular brings him a feeling of having served his former profession well.

“One thing I worked for is to have teachers make a decent living so they can take care of their families,” Williams says. “I think we’ve done that over the past couple of years in the Legislature. Starting teachers used to make something like $22,000 a year. Now we have the three-tier system where they make $30-40-50,000.”

Of course, with that comes a requirement for accountability, he added. It’s an important job, Williams says from experience. Looking back on his career he believes he did a “fair amount of good.”

“I have a tremendous number of success stories from all around the state,” he notes, referring to his former seventh- and eighth-grade students.

People call those years “a difficult age,” but Williams says it was not so much difficult as it was challenging and rewarding. Adolescence is a special time for growth, he says. Young people are emerging from the cocoon of childhood and like butterflies, some emerge with beautiful full wings and others still can hardly fly by themselves. All adolescents are not the same and they must be dealt with according to those differences, he says.

When this term is up, he plans to run again. One more time, he says. Then it will be time to stay home and “mind the farm.”

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