John Richard Williams (October 29, 1909 – August 24, 1998) was an American radio announcer and politician. After gaining public recognition throughout Arizona because of his work in radio, he went on to become a two-term mayor of Phoenix, Arizona, and a three-term governor of Arizona. A constitutional amendment, approved by Arizona voters in 1968, resulted in Williams serving eight years as governor and being the first governor of Arizona to serve a four-year term.
As mayor of Phoenix, Williams led efforts to grow the city that produced a series of annexations and construction of new governmental buildings. As governor he focused primarily on economic development within the state. His final term as governor was marred by a recall effort, led by Cesar Chavez, in response to his signing of a farm labor bill into law.
Early life and education Williams was born to James and Laure (LaCossette) Williams in Los Angeles on October 29, 1909. His parents, who had met while both working at a Wells Fargo office in Los Angeles, were assigned to the Wells Fargo office in Ash Fork, Arizona, at the time of his birth but still made periodic trips to Los Angeles to visit his mother's family. While still a child, his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where Williams was raised. In 1915, while visiting Los Angeles, Williams was diagnosed with a malignant tumor behind his right eye. At that time, Marie Curie was in the city giving lectures and demonstrating the use of radium pellets. After surgical removal of the eye and tumor, his physicians – unsure how to proceed – asked Curie to assist with Williams' treatment. Radiation therapy administered by Curie was successful in halting the cancer but left his eye socket unable to accept a glass eye. Williams instead became known for wearing glasses with a frosted lens.
In 1924, Williams' father died suddenly. Williams graduated from Phoenix Union High School and enrolled at Phoenix Junior College (now Phoenix College). While in college he helped his family financially by writing press releases and holding part-time positions at the Phoenix Public Library and a local supermarket. Williams graduated from Phoenix Junior College in 1929.
Early career As he prepared for graduation in 1929, Williams found a job posting for a radio announcer at KOY. He applied for the position and was hired, beginning with a two-hour on-air shift each day. Williams began his radio career announcing songs and performing live advertisements for KOY. A couple months after starting, the station replaced him with a British actor. When the actor moved away from Phoenix several weeks later, Williams was rehired. By 1931 he had added news announcer to his list of duties with Williams rewriting stories from the Los Angeles Examiner or radio news services for the local audience.
With the election of 1932 approaching, Williams created a news program titled I Vote For in which he asked people from around the state who they intended to vote for and later played the recorded answers. This program was the first time either of Phoenix's two radio stations (KTAR being the second) left their studios to interact with the public. In 1936, KOY underwent a change of ownership. With the new management, Williams received a promotion to program director, a job title he would hold for the next 30 years. In his role at KOY, he would go on to host the commentary show Yours Sincerely. Williams opened each show with his signature line, "It's a beautiful day in Arizona. Leave us all enjoy it!".
On June 5, 1942, Williams married Vera May. The union produced three children: John Richard Jr., Micheal M., and Nikki.
City politics A member of the Phoenix Union High School Board of Education approached Williams in 1942, asking him to run for a seat on the Phoenix Elementary School District No. 1 board. Williams was initially reluctant but eventually agree to run, only to lose. The next year one of the three members of the Elementary School board was removed from office and Williams was appointed to fill the empty seat. Shortly after taking office he was made board president, a position he would retain until 1952. In addition to his seat on the school board, Williams became active in other civic and governmental activities. In 1946 he became president of Phoenix Junior Chamber of Commerce while he was vice president of the Phoenix Housing Authority from 1944 to 1947. The Phoenix Advertising Club named Williams Man of the Year in 1953.
Williams' biggest impact on the school board came in 1951 following passage of a law by the state legislature allowing districts to voluntarily desegregate. He joined with another board member to pass a measure, 2–1, that desegregated Phoenix elementary schools. To deal with concerns from the minority community that minority teachers would lose their jobs he announced a "quota system" for the hiring of teachers. To alleviate concerns of white parents with children assigned to predominantly minority classrooms he announced an "open school policy" allowing students to transfer to any other school in the district.
In 1952, one of Phoenix's city council members moved his residence outside city limits and was required to abandon his seat. Barry Goldwater, another member of the city council, nominated Williams to fill the remainder of the outgoing councilman's term. After his appointment to the seat, Williams quickly learned he did not enjoy the "squabbles" that dominated legislative process. An example of this came when the city council considered buying several privately held water companies from local businessman Spence Stewart in order to merge them into a municipal water company. Williams focused on whether the purchase made sense for the city while the majority of the council were concerned with "not making Spence Stewart a millionaire by buying his water companies". Williams declined to run when his partial term ended in 1954.
Mayor of Phoenix The Charter Government Committee (CGC) asked Williams to run for mayor of Phoenix in mid-1955. The CGC, which dominated Phoenix city politics during the 1950s and 1960s, was a group organized to establish favorable business conditions in Phoenix and fight government corruption. Williams continued to host his daily radio show, Yours Sincerely during the campaign. He avoided speaking about campaign issues during the show, instead encouraging listeners to vote for the candidate of their choice in the days leading up to the election.
A big issue raised in early October was the city council voting to give all 411 city workers a pay raise. Williams' three opponents condemned the vote with one candidate saying "It looks to me like the council is trying to buy an election with the taxpayer's money" while a second candidate said it was a "Cheap political device aimed at getting votes at the cost of the city's welfare." Williams countered that the pay raise had been in consideration for several months and only came close to the election because of delays in the city council's vote. He attacked his opponents focus on the pay raise, claiming they were employing "oratorical gimmicks" and instead tried to focus on other problems facing Phoenix, including an antiquated sewage system. When the election results became available the morning after the election, Williams was found to have received more than twice as many votes as his three opponents combined. The day after the election, Williams used his radio show to thank the voters for their support.
Williams was sworn in as mayor on January 3, 1956. He also continued his radio work while in office. As mayor, he described his two major roles as helping "fill up head tables" and serving as the city's "official greeter". Shortly after taking office, Williams asked the people who had asked him to run what they thought was the city's greatest need. They told him the city needed to annex surrounding areas to prevent small enclaves from forming in areas that should become part of Phoenix. Towards this need, Williams called a number of special sessions where the city council voted to annex adjacent land into the city.
The CGC renominated Williams for a second term in 1957. Only a single challenger chose to run against him. As in his previous campaign, Williams avoided using his radio show to discuss campaign issues. In addition to races for various political offices, the voters in Phoenix were asked to approve a US$70-million bond package. On election day, Williams won a majority in every precinct within the city. The bond package was also approved.
Williams became more aggressive in his efforts to annex new areas during his second term. He also used his radio show to discuss the advantages of living in an incorporated area, including police and fire protection, health and sanitation services, parks and playgrounds, street repair, and zoning controls. His efforts to enlarge Phoenix were largely successful with the city adding of new territory during his two terms. The bond package approved by the voters in 1957 was completed in late 1958. The resulting funds resulted in construction of a variety of public buildings in 1959. As his second term came to an end, Williams chose not to run for a third term.
Governorship Soon after he left office as mayor, Republican leaders within Arizona began lobbying Williams to run for governor. He instead returned to working full-time at KOY. Williams also began writing a regular column in the Phoenix Gazette. The combination of his work on radio and the newspaper kept him involved with state-wide politics. This changed in 1965 when Barry Goldwater and Paul Fannin convinced Williams to make a run. As part of the agreement between the men, Fannin, who had received assistance from Williams during his 1958 run for governor, promised to help Williams in his run.
As he began campaigning, Williams took a leave of absence from his position at KOY. This was done to avoid violating a 1959 change to the equal-time provision of the Fairness Doctrine and to allow him to campaign full-time. His opponents during the Republican primary were Arizona House Speaker John Haugh and former Arizona Attorney General Robert Pickrell. Haugh's political power was based in the southern section of the state. Williams was aided in Maricopa County by his increased name recognition from his time as mayor of Phoenix. Pickrell would quickly fall out of contention as the campaign developed. Williams and Haugh meanwhile ran on virtually identical platforms with both men promising to work more closely with the state legislature than the sitting governor. Results of the primary gave Williams a narrow victory over Haugh, with Pickrell finishing a distant third.
Campaign for the general election quickly turned nasty with the incumbent, Sam Goddard, accusing Williams of running a "scurrilous" campaign predicated on "invective and accusation and character assassination." Williams responded by claiming Goddard had "made more mistakes in twenty months than all the other governors since statehood" and accusing him of "behaved like a petty tyrant scolding his subjects." Mudslinging continued for the course of the campaign with both candidates questioning the qualifications of the other. Williams used self-deprecating humor to deflect his opponent's attacks and as election day approached claimed "For the past two months Sam Goddard has been so busy thinking up new names to call me he's forgotten to talk about the issues." In addition to his own victory, Williams saw his party do well in races for the state legislature. This resulted in Republicans winning control of both houses of the state legislature for the first time in Arizona history.