Grant Williams

Paying tribute to an officer, mentor and friend
By Tyler Dunne
December 5, 2009 - 6:35pm
Members of the SU community remember 40-year DPS official Grant Williams during his funeral at Hendricks Chapel Saturday.

Mike Hopkins remembers trudging across a snowy Syracuse University campus as a wide-eyed freshman in 1989. Everything about the school was new to the young basketball player from California.

Then — out of nowhere — someone lent a helping hand.

As he did for countless others, Department of Public Safety official Grant Williams Jr. gave Hopkins advice and provided him with an insider’s take on the campus.

“Grant wasn’t a police officer,” said Hopkins, now an assistant basketball coach at SU. “He was a coach.  A developer of talent. A developer of people.”