There will be a service on Saturday, July 18, 2026, at 10 a.m. at the First Parish in Wayland for J. Claude Williamson, who died from natural causes on Friday, June 19, 2026, at the age of 106.
He was born in Zanesville, Ohio, on Aug. 20, 1919, to Glenn Gibson Williamson and Mary Luella Leffler and grew up in a small home with no indoor plumbing until he was 10. Williamson graduated from The Ohio State University in 1941 and was a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, deployed as a radar officer with the Army Signal Corps. He used the G.I. bill to obtain his master’s degree at Ohio State and began a career in defense contracting.
Claude’s main outside interests were family, freshwater fishing, and foreign travel. By the age of 89, he had traveled to all seven continents. He loved telling stories, particularly about his WWII service.
He was predeceased by his wife, Hazel (Tarbutton) Williamson; his sister, Mary Louise (Williamson) Steil; his brothers, Paul and Wayne Williamson; and his son-in-law, Stephen Winthrop. He is survived by his children, Christine (Ken) Bender, John (Dolores Yrisarry) Williamson, and Jane Williamson, seven grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in his memory to First Parish in Wayland.
