Ben Williams '80 was born in Mobile, Alabama and grew up in a small town in Wilcox County. He attended parochial school in Selma before enrolling at Georgetown Prep in the fall of 1976. After graduating from Prep in 1980, he attended Spring Hill College, where he graduated with a BA in English Literature and went on to obtain an MA in English Literature at St. Louis University. While there he taught English at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park and as a Teaching Assistant at St. Louis University. He returned to Prep in the fall of 1986 and has served in numerous roles at the School. As a teacher, he has taught ESL, Western Civ, English I & III, AP Language, Southern Voice, Blues Lit, and Technical Theater. He worked in the Resident Department as a Dorm Parent for two years, and as Housemaster (Residential Dean) for three years. He has served as the English Department Chair and Dean of Faculty. Since 2005, he has led the NOLA Service Program (The Second Line), most recently with math teacher Patrick Butcher '03. He has played an active role in a number of extracurricular activities and academic committees.

What have you done since graduating from Georgetown Prep?

I went from Prep to Spring Hill College, so back to my native Alabama. After being away for four years I wanted to go home. I had two uncles go there, and the President of the College at the time graduated from Prep in the fifties. I majored in English and Theater; SHC has an excellent English department, and I still keep in touch with one of my former professors, a brilliant and enthusiastic Shakespeare scholar. From there I pursued a master's in English at St. Louis University. A fun fact: The three schools are the three oldest Jesuit schools in the US: I) Prep; 2) SLU; 3) SHC.

I worked throughout my schooling. When I was a resident student at Prep, I managed the switchboard in the evenings; in college, I worked the three-to-midnight shift at a deli/bakery where I learned a lot of short-order cooking and dishwashing. I also learned how to decorate and write on cakes. The key there was to get the cake in the box and taped before the customer realized they could not read my handwriting!

In grad school, I supplemented my meager teaching salary by working for a three-man construction team that focused on rehabbing 19th and early 20th century houses in St. Louis. I loved that work and picked up some good skills. The other guys also had master's degrees from SLU, and that's the only reason they hired me. It was great work--hard work, esp. with St. Louis weather.

I think that hands-on work--that and growing up on an old farm in the middle of nowhere Alabama--informs a lot of who I am as a teacher. Growing up in the country meant a lot of time wandering in the woods and learning by observation; there was a lot to spark curiosity and the imagination. And I read a lot as a boy, and it was reading that got me through the academics at Prep. Otherwise, I was wholly unprepared. But reading gave me skills and analytical thinking and imagination and helped to control my inability to sit still and concentrate.

The construction taught me how to concentrate and to think through a linear process, to imagine what a thing would be or look like and then make it happen, always adjusting to elements beyond my control. And there is the great satisfaction of the nail driven straight, the harmony of posts and beams, of shapes and materials.

Teaching high school boys, I draw on these experiences every day, if only in the stories I tell or use in my grammar worksheets. More significantly, I know that the boys respond to the tactile; they want to use their hands, to see a result at the end. I try to bring that sensitivity to the stories and poems I teach and make them relevant in a living, breathing way.

I'd say that the success of the NOLA service bears this out. When the boys are occupied with the work at hand--work that is often heavy or meticulous and always when it's 95 degrees--their minds are free to reflect on where they are and why they are there. Their pride in the work becomes a part of their story, and it's a story forever intertwined with the families who will live in that house.

What was one of your favorite classes you took as a student at Prep?

Not surprisingly, English and History were my favorite subjects. I was lucky to have Dr. Ochs for US History and US Government, and classes were then as they are now: demanding and enthralling. Mr. Barry taught me twice also, in my sophomore and senior years. That man is a master. I see him teach today, and I'm still in awe of how he keeps the work fresh, the students hooked, and the bar high. It's like watching Keith Richards play "Satisfaction" for fifty years. Still makes you get up and rock.

What was one of your favorite memories as a teacher at Prep?

I don't know that I can pull out a particular favorite memory from my years of teaching. There are a lot of them. I love talking about stories and listening to the guys latch on to stories and hearing them grapple with how a work intersects with their experiences. That wonderful light bulb moment. I love that every day, no matter how tired or hurried I might feel, two things will happen in class: 1) We will laugh uproariously, and 2) I will be in rapture at what a kid comes up with. That's not a bad way to spend time at work. It sure makes grading all those papers worth it.

What impact did Georgetown Prep have on you?

Prep's impact on me comes, of course, more from experience as an employee than as a student. To be honest, I was young and immature and not at all a part of the world I entered when I first stepped on campus. But a few things stand out over the years.

As a student and a teacher, I've been able to fail (more than once!) and make mistakes. I learned to study and I've been able to grow into the profession because a lot of classmates, colleagues, mentors, and students have supported me.

Prep has afforded me the opportunity to teach in multiple departments, take on significant administrative roles, pursue my interests through classes, grants, and a sabbatical. I've been able to pursue writing and to explore the stories and music of my native South. This has led to collaborations with musician Otis Taylor and a late night in the music room listening to Honeyboy Edwards tell tales. I'm very proud of the NOLA service program Donny Cheeseman and I started in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. The intimacy of that service work changed me forever, and I think it has had a real impact on 15 years of students, faculty, and staff who have experienced it. Though I've stayed in one place a long time--something I never foresaw--I've had varied jobs and opportunities that have been demanding, fun, and rewarding.

Some of my closest friends have been those I met at Prep. I've lost many before I should have--Rich Drozd, Danny Napolitano, Bob Cunniff, Jeff Jones, Gary Daum, Steve Maczynski--but my friends at Prep have enriched my life immeasurably. My colleagues are among the most committed and kind and fun people I know, and they make Prep a great place to go to work every day.

I met and married my wife at Prep; we baptized our daughter in the Chapel.

I'd say Prep has had a pretty big impact. Who knew that would be the case in 1976?

What advice would you have for current Prep students?

Look outside of yourself. Involve yourself in a class or extracurricular or sport you have never explored before. There's no learning without stretching yourself.

Reach out to someone you don't know. Without being asked, offer help. Offer a shoulder.

Take risks. Really: There is almost nothing you can screw up now that you can't fix.

Do your homework conscientiously. Try to enjoy it.

Read.