Fred & Hallie Williams Die Within Less Than Two Weeks Of Each Other

 Hallie Williams Died On January 19th & Fred Died On January 31st 

Fred Williams at Glennallen IGA (Photo, Country Journal)

Longtime Copper Valley residents Fred & Hallie Williams have both died –  within days of each other. 

Fred and Hallie moved to the region from Wyoming in 1963. They had four children. 

Hallie Williams taught school, and is remembered by many now-grown Copper Valley people.  She was a high school choir director who formed a band. She also taught piano to local students, and worked at the Department of Transportation offices (DOT) in Tazlina. 

A fisheries biologist in the Copper Valley for 24 years, Fred was an enthusiastic member of the historical society in Copper Center and served on the board of Copper Valley Electric until recently.

Fred Williams was a genuine historian. He loved telling tales he had heard, and things he had seen first hand.  He maintained an extensive home library of Copper Valley historical books and documents. 

In many ways, he was a unique authority on the 1898 "All American Gold Rush" due to personal knowledge. In 2014, he told the Copper River Country Journal about his many trips on the glacier route  used during the Gold Rush between Valdez and Klutina Lake.

His observations about the Gold Rush and the difficulties that miners faced on the glaciers were concrete and revealing. Fred enjoyed traveling up to the glaciers with his friend, Pinky Becker.

Fred said of his trips on the Gold Rush Trail:

"I went up there 5 or 6 times. You never knew, around the corner there would be something. You'd look around and find a part of a cabin, and stuff like that. It was the most exciting thing I've done in my life." 

An active outdoorsman, he was cautious and practical. 

In 1996, the Copper Basin Search & Rescue team was very active, Years of extraordinary cold weather and new, far-ranging snowmachines began to put local people at risk. Fred wrote to the Copper River Country Journal with extensive safety tips for winter travel, for publication in the hopes of helping others stay safe.

Further Information About Fred & Hallie Williams Will Follow