About Archie

Archie is best known outside of Marin for winning a gold medal in the 400-meter dash in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he represented the United States with Jesse Owens. The visible success of Archie and other African American athletes at these games refuted the Nazi myth of Aryan superiority and served to highlight the racial discrimination that they faced when they returned home. It was a watershed moment in our history, as the Civil Rights Movement developed out of the Jim Crow era.

After returning from the Olympics Archie completed a degree in mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley, then served as a flight instructor with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. He continued to serve as an Army weather officer until 1964, when he retired as a lieutenant colonel. He then began a second career teaching math and computing at Drake, where he earned a reputation for being a kind and caring mentor to generations of students. One former student wrote, "Williams took a genuine interest in each of us, providing a patient, safe, supportive and healthy educational environment."

Great teachers attend to the needs of their students and make them feel like they belong to a community of learning. Archie was that kind of teacher. Let's tell his story.

"Gameday: Remembering Archie Williams," report by Vern Glenn, KPIX, May 29, 2017.

"Remembering Archie Williams, Marin’s own Olympian," by Noah Griffin, Marin IJ, August 18, 2016.

"A Meteorologist Who Changed the World," by the editors of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, February 16, 2017.

"Archie F. Williams, The Joy of Flying: Olympic Gold, Air Force Colonel, and Teacher," an oral history conducted in 1992 by Gabrielle Morris, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1993.

"An Olympian's oral history : Archie F. Williams, 1936 Olympic Games, track & field," an oral history conducted in 1988 by George A. Hodak for the Olympians Oral History Project, LA84 Foundation.

"Olympic Pride, American Prejudice," a 2016 documentary film by Deborah Riley Draper on the 1936 Olympics.

"'Olympic Pride, American Prejudice': How 18 Black Olympians Defied Jim Crow & Hitler in 1936," interview with Deborah Riley Draper on Democracy Now!, August 10, 2016.

"'Olympic Pride, American Prejudice' documentary includes Archie Williams," by Maureen Hurley, SFDHS '70, February 24, 2016.

"A Tribute to Archie Williams," contributed to this site by Konrad Dryden, May 1, 2021.

"School should be renamed for Archie Williams," by Mark Tolbert, SFDHS '77, Marin IJ, September 5, 2020.

"Archie Williams is Dead at 78; Won a Gold at Berlin Olympics," New York Times (p. 27), June 26, 1993.