Gerry Williams

1926 - 2014

DUNBARTON – Gerry Williams, master potter, magazine editor, teacher, mentor, passed away Sunday, August 24, 2014, after a battle with Parkinson's disease.

A longtime resident of Dunbarton, Williams was the co-founder of Studio Potter magazine and Phoenix Workshops, and has been a model and source of inspiration for ceramic artists around the world. Williams was selected as New Hampshire's first Artist Laureate by Governor Jeanne Shaheen in 1998, and in 2005 was honored with New Hampshire's Lotte Jacobi Living Treasure Award. Williams once wrote, "Potter is what I do, who I am, where I come from."

Born Frederick Gerald Williams in 1926 in Asanol, Bengal, India, the son of American educational missionaries, who befriended Mahatma Gandhi, young Williams embraced the Indian leader's philosophy of pacifism. Returning to the United States to attend Cornell College in Iowa in 1943, Williams refused to serve in World War II as a conscientious objector and spent several years in alternate war service, first as a Malaria test victim on Roosevelt Island in Manhattan, and then clearing roads at CPS Camp in Tennessee. His refusal to register for the draft eventually led him to a 2-year sentence at Danbury State Penitentiary.

A fleeting mention of the craft of pottery in a book he was reading in 1950 resonated deeply with him: Many years later, Williams recognized the "spirit of India" in his work. "The ambiance, the dignity of crafts, the importance of manual labor, the spiritual necessity of the humanistic core of crafts, all come from my background in India." This led him to the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen in Concord, where, under the auspices of League founder David Campbell, he was given a broom to sweep the floor while he studied under renowned potters Viveka Heino and Richard Moll.

He set himself up as a studio potter in the Black Hills section of Concord and started making functional earthenware pottery out of clay he dug from local mudflats. He met his wife Julie Williams when she interviewed him for her morning radio talk show on WFEA, and they built a home and studio in Dunbarton in 1955. By the early 1960s, Williams was well known and respected as one of the few potters in the country able to make a living as an independent craftsman. He became a technical master, innovating with new wet-fire techniques and a photo-resist process in which images are laid directly onto vessels and fired.

His interest in color led him to master the elusive Copper Red glaze. His work gradually shifted to stoneware and porcelain, and along with functional and one-of-a kind pots, he began what was perhaps his most significant series of political sculptures, which spanned four decades of satirical, social, and political commentary. "Primarily I am a potter making functional objects, but as I observe social and political behavior around me in this country, I cannot help but put my feelings into articulated clay and say what I feel," said Williams.

In 1972 his pottery studio burned to the ground, but out of the ashes sprang two of Gerry and Julie Williams' most significant endeavors: They co-founded Studio Potter, an international journal that became one of the most influential and literate art publications in America, and they also started the Phoenix Workshops at their home in Dunbarton, which attracted potters from around the world as teachers and students. He has taught at Dartmouth College, Willimantic State College, Haystack School, Penland School, the NY State College at Cortland, and the Tasmanian College in Hobart, Australia. He has lectured in Austria, Japan, India, Finland, China and Croatia. He has been a panel member for the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington DC. In addition to being selected as New Hampshire's first Artist Laureate and receiving the Lotte Jacobi Living Treasure Award, Williams was elected as a Fellow and received the Gold Medal from the American Craft Council, received Honorary Doctorates from Notre Dame College and Cornell College, Iowa, and was a Lifetime Trustee of the N.H. Institute of Art. He was part of the first delegation of artists and craftspeople to China in 1977, and visited China again in 2000 and 2005 as the Editor of Studio Potter.

Charles Musser's 1976 documentary entitled An American Potter explored his life and work, and he is listed in Who's Who in American Art. His one-person exhibitions included those at the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen in Concord; the Currier Museum of Art, Manchester (which owns 20 pieces of his work in their permanent collection); Colby-Sawyer College, New London; St. Paul's School, Concord; the University of New Hampshire; Southern NH University; the de Cordova Museum, Lincoln, Mass.; the Fleming Museum, Burlington, Vt.; the Museum of American Crafts, New York, N.Y.; the George Walter Vincent Smith Museum, Springfield, Mass.; and the University of Utah, Logan, Utah.

He showed his work in numerous group shows and exhibitions, including those in California, New York, Massachusetts, Texas, Vermont and Washington, and exhibited abroad at the Brussel's Fair, the Ostend International, Belgium; the New Delhi World Agricultural Fair; the Victoria and Albert Museum; Objects USA, Ceramics International, 1972; Foshan, China; Prague IAC Exhibition; Art in the Embassies Program, and the US State Department Traveling Exhibitions.

In 2009, New Hampshire Magazine named Williams' appointment as Artist Laureate the number one cultural achievement of the last 10 years. Despite his renown, he was known for his gentle demeanor and kindness. "I tried to share what I had and engage the people around me," he said in his simple and understated way. "It's been a wonderful life."

Gerry was predeceased by the love of his life, Julie; by his younger brother, Malcolm; and by his daughter, Leslie.

He is survived by his devoted daughters and their husbands, Jennifer and Mark Oliver of Goffstown and Shelley and Bill Westenberg of Dunbarton; and his many grandchildren, Chryss Laroche of Barnstead, Brandon and Jackie Williams of Portsmouth, Melissa Cockfield of Hooksett, Jamie Van de Car of New Boston, Aaron Van de Car of New Boston and Aidan and Jake Westenberg of Dunbarton.

A celebration of Gerry will be held on Saturday, October 18, at 3 p.m. at 130 Stark Highway South in Dunbarton.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Dunbarton Congregational Church, dccucc.org.