Friends join together to endow scholarship to honor Virginia Tech alumnus

Nate Williams approached death in the same way he approached life – with love, laughter, and a longing to leave a legacy.

“He never wanted to be known as the ‘sick’ friend,” Williams’ wife, Faith, said. “He just wanted to be the friend.”

Williams ’09, who graduated from the university with a degree in architecture, passed away in 2020 after a two-year battle with colon cancer. But he was such a wonderful person that a group of his closest buddies, family members, and strangers who simply happened across his story banded together to memorialize him in arguably the most perfect of ways, raising $100,000 to endow a scholarship at Virginia Tech in his name and ensure his legacy impacts future generations.

The Nathan Williams Scholarship will go annually to an underrepresented or underserved incoming freshman in the university’s College of Architecture, Arts, and Design. College officials publicly recognized the endowing of the scholarship at the Celebration of Generosity event on Nov. 15.

“One of the last days that Nate was kind of with it – and it was only a few days before he died – he said he had two last requests, two last wishes,” Faith Williams said. “The first was that he wanted my younger brother to have his bass guitars and that he was going to haunt those bass guitars – and my younger brother has his guitars.

“Then the second one was that he wanted to start a scholarship for architecture students at Virginia Tech because being an architect meant everything to him. It was his passion and his profession. It was his food and air.”

The scholarship came to life after Nate Williams’ passing because of the work of his friends and family. According to those who knew him best, he donated his time and money to causes that mattered to him – and he did so consistently and in a big way.

While at Virginia Tech, Williams and seven of his friends started participating in Novembeard, a month-long endeavor in which participants forgo shaving and raise money for cancer research. Many also know this endeavor as No-Shave November. At the end of the month, group members spent a weekend showing off their impressive – or unimpressive – facial hair and to share some laughs.

Williams and his friends continued doing this even after graduating. In 2012, the group deviated from raising money for cancer research and instead gave the proceeds to the family of Deriek Crouse, a Virginia Tech police officer who was killed during a traffic stop on the Blacksburg campus in December 2011.

In 2018, Williams started losing weight and feeling ill. Approximately at the same time, his sister went in for a colonoscopy that revealed precancerous polyps. The doctor told her that any siblings needed to get checked right away, and soon thereafter, a colonoscopy led to a colon cancer diagnosis for Williams.

The diagnosis came just seven months after his wedding.

“When I tell you that colon cancer was not on our radar, I mean it truly was not on our radar,” Faith Williams said. “You don’t expect your vows to be tested quite so soon, but that is why you make vows.”

Shortly after the diagnosis, Jeff Williams’ friends came together and made a rather easy decision, according to Lenny Brown ’08, one of his closest friends. They decided to split their Novembeard fundraising proceeds, sending a portion to the Williams family to help offset medical costs and the remainder to The Ruesch Center for the Cure of Gastrointestinal Cancers at Georgetown University, where Williams was receiving treatment.

The group continued doing this throughout Williams’ two-year battle until his passing in April 2020 at the age of 34.

“We kind of knew right away that, ‘OK, this is now going to be our focus, helping him with medical expenses, and our group was growing, and we had significant others,” Brown said. “Obviously, more friends became involved, and it was all done through their own social media — Facebook, Twitter, and getting other people included in it. We did that for a couple years in getting funds to him to help pay for his medical expenses.”

Unbeknownst to many of them, Williams took some of the money that the group gave to him for medical expenses and gave it to someone else fighting cancer. The sister of his wife’s best friend was younger than him, and he felt compelled to help her.

Jeff Yacup ’07, who went to the same high school in Manassas, as Williams and was a longtime good friend, wasn’t aware of Williams’ decision to share the money, but added that the decision certainly fit with his character.

“It doesn’t surprise me that he would do that,” Yacup said. “He was humble. I don’t want to paint the picture that he was like a quiet voice. He was eccentric, he was charismatic, and he was the funniest person in the room. He was always the life of any party. … [But] that was a big part of his life, acts of charity and helping other people, and it was something he never wanted to be recognized for.”

Following his passing, Faith Williams, Brown, Yacup, and many others sought to carry out Nate Williams’ final wish and establish a scholarship at Virginia Tech. In November 2020, they launched a GoFundMe page, pledging to use their Novembeard proceeds to start a scholarship through the Beyond Boundaries vision at Virginia Tech and encouraging others to join in.

The platform offered the group a wider audience, and Nate Williams’s story touched many people – particularly after learning that Faith Williams gave birth to twin sons just four months after his passing.

Within four years, the group raised more than $60,000 through the GoFundMe page. The Williams family and other anonymous donors committed to the remaining $40,000 for the university’s $100,000 requirement to endow a scholarship.

“Everybody who knew Nate was moved to give what they could,” Yacup said. “I think that was a part of it, and that includes his architecture family. It’s not surprising that many people would do that.”

Pulling together $100,000 can be challenging, but reaching the goal within four years also showed the impact of Nate Williams.

“I’m just thrilled,” Brown said. “I think it’s great just to have something that memorializes him indefinitely, somebody that means so much to us. He’s got two sons, and it’s just something that we can always point to for them. We know how much he meant to everybody, and I’m glad we were able to do this, so that his name will live on through this scholarship.”

“The fact that Nate will be remembered, and he’ll have an impact forever there, I think that’s special,” Yacup agreed. “To think back to the times we had there and the fun we had, and that that may be emulated for some other kid from Manassas, Virginia, or wherever else who wants to study architecture, I think it’s amazing, really.”

Faith Williams attended the Celebration of Generosity event on Nov. 15. Her family and Nate Williams’s parents and sister were in attendance. She also brought her twin sons, who recently turned 4.

She said she shares as much as possible with them about their father, and such an occasion reinforces what she shares.

“It’s all about living your values, and Nate did that,” she said. “That is how I want to raise them as well, so I can’t wait to take them and tell them more about their dad.”

Endowed awards such as the Nathan Williams Scholarship are indicative of the college’s and the university’s commitment to Virginia Tech Advantage, which aims to provide Virginia Tech students with transformational learning experiences, regardless of their financial situations.