If anyone lived her sorority’s mission, it was Mary Clay Williams (EdD ’54). As a Chi Omega alumna, she also was a TU alumna who served as a professor, counselor, director of student services, director of personnel, and dean of women at The University of Tulsa over the course of 28 years. In these roles, she worked to foster “…friendship, personal integrity, service to others, academic excellence and intellectual pursuits, community and campus involvement and personal and career development.” All of these qualities and efforts are included in the mission statement of Chi Omega. Williams served as a mentor to generations of TU undergraduate students.
During the course of her career, Dr. Williams developed a national reputation for teaching excellence, along with civic and fraternal service. In 1939, after teaching in Tulsa schools for several years, she joined TU as a counselor to women and an English teacher. Eventually, she became director of student services for men and women, director of personnel and dean of women. Her dedication to scholarship and sorority life can be seen in Kendallabrum photos over the years as she acted as advisor to Lantern, the sophomore women’s honor society, and to TU’s Panhellenic Council. The 1942 Kendallabrum characterized her as a “Jill of All Trades,” who joined in activities and bicycled to campus.
Dr. Williams was a loyal supporter of The University of Tulsa long before she joined its administration. She was a native of Kentucky, who moved to Tulsa with her family in 1912. She was 15 at the time and a student at Central High School, and she later recalled traveling by streetcar with her family to TU football games. She once told the Tulsa Tribune that her parents did not set a course for her, and yet, her family’s love of learning and books obviously had its impact. Her father, attorney Irvine Williams, helped start the city’s first public library, located in the old Tulsa Courthouse. Although she once wanted to follow her father and become a lawyer, she eventually decided against it. “I didn’t want to do the work so some man could try the case and get the credit. College is one place where everyone should be on an equal basis,” she said in the Tulsa Tribune interview.
Instead, Dr. Williams found her career path by accident. While pursuing her bachelor’s degree at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, she was elected national treasurer of Chi Omega sorority, a job that is now reserved for alumnae members. In that role for six years, she visited many college campuses and realized higher education needed qualified women to serve in administrative roles. She went on to earn a master’s degree from Columbia University. In 1954, she was one of the first three individuals to earn a doctorate at TU. Williams was named “Mrs. Homecoming” in 1961, TU’s highest honor for an employee.
It was obvious to others that Williams loved being an educator. Even after retiring from TU in 1967, she spent several years teaching at American Christian College. But Williams had other interests, too; she served as president of Junior League, she was a member of the Shakespeare Club and the Colonial Dames, and she was named Woman of the Year by her sorority and by Mortar Board, a collegiate honor society for senior women. She traveled to Europe, Asia and Mexico, and visited all 50 states in the U.S. In 1985, Chi Omega alumnae established a merit-based scholarship for members of the TU chapter of Chi Omega, known as the Mary Clay Williams Memorial Chi Omega Scholarship.
In her day, it was not unusual for a woman to earn a college degree; however, it was uncommon for a woman to pursue multiple degrees and a career in higher education administration. To her Chi Omega sisters and all women at TU, Mary Clay Williams was a pioneer and a role model. The University of Tulsa is grateful to the Chi Omega Alumnae Association for its generosity and thoughtfulness in remembering this longtime member of the TU family with this important scholarship fund.
