The death of Rev. Cecil Williams, a longtime San Francisco civil-rights leader and co-founder of Glide Memorial Church, continues to resonate with the people who knew him best.
Colleagues told The Examiner that Williams, who died Monday at 94, set an example of acceptance and kindness well before those values became commonly associated with The City.
“Cecil exhibited such bravery,” Karl Robillard, the GLIDE Foundation’s chief communications and public affairs officer, told The Examiner. “When people think of Cecil, they think of a person whose door was always open, whom you could always turn to.”
The GLIDE Foundation said Wiliams died Monday in his San Francisco home, surrounded by friends and family.
Williams first rose to local prominence in the early 1960s by giving a reinvigorating shot into the foundation’s spiritual arm.
Alongside his wife Janice Mirikitani, who died in July 2021 from cancer, Williams sought to make his congregation a safe haven for drug users, sex workers, transgender youth and other marginalized communities in the Tenderloin, according to the foundation’s website.
“We want to be a wholesome community of people who really stood up and said we want to change the world because we want to make sure the world is a better place for everybody,” he told The Examiner in 2008.
Rev. Amos Brown said that his relationship with Williams spanned nearly 50 years. The two first met in 1976 when Brown came to San Francisco to become senior pastor of the historic Third Baptist Church, he said.
“Cecil was the embodiment of the remnants of persons who really followed Jesus,” Brown said. “Cecil Williams was a walking temple where God resided. He fed the hungry, helped the poor, housed the homeless and friended the marginalized.”
Brown said Williams was “a quintessential embodiment of the spirituality that Jesus sought to pour into his disciples.”
Robillard, who worked alongside Williams until the latter stepped down from his leadership role with GLIDE in February 2023, said that Williams advocated for the rights of Black San Franciscans, The City’s LGBTQ youth and other marginalized groups prior to those stances becoming widely accepted.
Ex // Top Stories
Demonstrators said campus police arrested one demonstrator Monday night, who was subsequently released from custody
It’s the first time the company’s vehicles will operate in self-driving mode on the roads since a pedestrian in The City was seriously injured in an October crash
The feds pledge $3.38 billion to the decades-long quest to link Caltrain and high-speed rail to the Salesforce Transit Center San Francisco’s downtown
Williams could connect with a breadth of individuals, Robillard recalled, ranging from disadvantaged San Franciscans turning to Glide in their times of need to some of the country’s most powerful and wealthiest people.
“He’s one of those people in the arc of human history that has the courage and the bravery to do whatever it takes to create a radically inclusive and unconditionally loving world,” Robillard said. “While many people aspire to do that, Cecil had the courage and the bravery to actually get it done.”
Gina Fromer, president and CEO of the GLIDE Foundation since October 2023 and Williams’ permanent successor, said in a statement that Williams was “unwavering in his commitment to help the most marginalized in our community and in the world.”
“We will keep Cecil’s spirit within us always — as it guides our work going forward,” she said.
One component of GLIDE that Williams and Mirikitani helped build up throughout the 1980s was its free meals program, which currently distributes 700,000 meals per year. The GLIDE Foundation’s most famous example of feeding San Franciscans in need is arguably its annual Thanksgiving meal, which returned last year after the foundation reopened its kitchen following the COVID-19 pandemic.
San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston, whose district includes the Tenderloin, said in a statement Tuesday that Williams “truly represented the best of San Francisco.”
“Through his tireless work, vision, kindness, compassion and commitment to civil rights and social justice, Reverend Williams inspired so many people and brought help and hope to those in need, especially here in the Tenderloin and beyond,” he said.
Mayor London Breed lauded Williams’ compassion, wisdom and kindness in a statement Monday, calling Williams “the conscience of our San Francisco community.”
“Growing up, there were members of the African-American community that inspired us to dream, and to serve, and Cecil Williams was at the top of that list,” Breed wrote. “Cecil mentored generations of San Francisco leaders, many of us emerging from the most difficult circumstances.”
“As a young girl, I would never have dreamed I’d grow up to work with him,” she wrote. “We all benefited from his guidance, his support and his moral compass. We would not be who we are as a city and a people without the legendary Cecil Williams.”
Memorial plans for Williams are still being made, and updates will be shared on GLIDE’s website.
