|
JACK WILLIAMS
Jack Williams anchors WBZ-TV News at 5PM, 6PM, and 11PM with co-anchor
Lisa Hughes on WBZ-TV. A television journalist since 1968, Williams has
been recognized by numerous organizations for his reporting skills,
commitment to the community and for his work on behalf of his weekly
news series "Wednesday's Child," which he created in 1981.
Each week, "Wednesday's Child" features a special needs child
who is in search of a permanent home. Over the years the segment has
helped more than 650 special needs children find loving homes. Williams
is responsible for raising more than $5,000,000 for special needs adoption.
In April 2000, Williams created the Jack Williams Endowment for Wednesday's
Child, a 501(C) (3) charity to ensure continued financial support for
special needs adoption.
In December 1997 Williams was honored at the White House by President
Bill Clinton and the First Lady, with the first Adoption 2002 Excellence
Award. Williams and twelve others were singled out for individual achievement
for their efforts on behalf of special needs adoption. Williams also
received a Presidential Citation from President Ronald Reagan for "Wednesday's
Child" in June 1986 in the Rose Garden at the White House.
Among the numerous other organizations that have acknowledged Williams'
work: the American Academy of Pediatrics, Friends of the Retarded, the
Massachusetts School Counselors Association, Massachusetts Psychological
Association, the Boston Catholic Archdiocese, Protestant Social Services
Bureau, B'Nai B'rith, Jewish Big Brother/Big Sister, and the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services.
During his career Williams has received four Emmy Awards; two for individual
reporting for the series "Crisis at Birth" and one for the
"Wednesday's Child" series. In 2001, he was honored with the
Governor's Award from the New England Emmy organization, recognizing
his career accomplishments.
In 1996, Williams was chosen to be a Phi Beta Kappa Fellow. The organization,
which is limited to 300 members nationally, recognizes those who have
shown outstanding achievement in their careers and high cultural and
intellectual ideals. In 1999, he was elected to the National Board of
Fellows and is now an officer on that board. In the spring of 2005,
Williams was appointed to the prestigious national position of a member
of Phi Beta Kappa's Council Nominating Committee, joining some well-known
academics as well as historian and Pulitzer Prize winner David Levering
Lewis.
In 1984 Williams received the first national media award ever presented
by the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps (TASH). In 1987
Boston University Law School gave Williams the N. Neal Pike Prize for
service to handicapped persons and, in January 1990, he was presented
with the Martin Luther Burstein Volunteer Award.
Williams has received seven honorary doctorate degrees from schools
throughout New England including Curry College, Salem State, Fitchburg
State College, Merrimack College, Framingham State College, Worcester
State College and Newbury College. He will receive his eighth honorary
doctorate this spring from Wheelock College. He also received an honorary
associated-arts-degree from Massasoit Community College.
Williams is one of the original board members of the Genesis Fund,
an organization that established the National Birth Defect Center at
Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Brighton, Massachusetts. He is also on
the advisory board of the Pike Institute of Boston University's Law
School, which fights for the right for the handicapped.
Williams' interest in broadcasting began at the age of 13 when he built
his own radio station at home in Idaho. Two years later he was hired
by Idaho radio station KYTE as an announcer. In 1964 Williams began
working full-time as a news reporter.
Prior to joining WBZ-TV in 1975, Williams worked at KIRO-TV in Seattle,
Washington and KORK-TV in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he was a news anchor
and news director.
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Oregon, Williams earned
a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism. He received the Harold E.
Fellows Memorial Fellowship from the National Association of Broadcasters
and was voted a member of the national Kappa Tau Alpha Journalistic
society. Williams was inducted into the University of Oregon's School
of Journalism and Communication Hall of Achievement in November 2005.
In 2001 Williams was elected as a fellow of the Massachusetts Historical
Society.
Williams and his wife, Marci, reside in the western suburbs of Boston.
WBZ-TV is a member of The Viacom Television Stations Group, a unit of
Viacom Inc., one of the world's largest entertainment and media companies,
and a leader in the production, promotion and distribution of entertainment,
news, sports and music.
top
|
