Gratitude is Golden

College Community Turn Out in Droves to Honor Beloved Teacher, Mentor Louis Williams for 50 Years at UHCOP

February 5 — Hundreds of University of Houston College of Pharmacy alumni, students, faculty colleagues, and family members recently paid tribute to Associate Professor Louis Williams, Ph.D., over three events to show their appreciation for his 50 years of teaching, research and service at the college.

The surprise events for Williams provided his well-wishers an opportunity to express their deep respect and admiration for the impact his guidance, mentorship and friendship made on their professional development and personal growth. Some of the attendees and others who were unable to attend shared their feelings on a digital card site.

"To think that someone like me could have touched so many lives and helped them achieve success in their professional careers to provide care for patients across the country is nothing short of remarkable," Williams said.

After earning his B.S. in pharmacy as well as M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in medicinal chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh, Williams joined UHCOP as a medicinal chemistry teacher and researcher – and the first African-American on the college's faculty – in 1974.

Teaching, Mentoring for Success

Over his five-decade career, Williams taught and mentored conservatively more than 5,000 professional and graduate students and served as adviser for two student organizations which routinely return from regional and national conferences weighed down by awards and other achievements. He has been recognized for teaching at the university and college level – more than a dozen times in total – as well as for mentorship at the national level.

Williams has served as the faculty advisor for the UHCOP chapters of the Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity since 1974 and the Student National Pharmaceutical Association since 1989. Both organizations have established legacies of success at the highest levels, from national and regional awards for outreach activities and pharmacy skills competitions to scholarships and officer leadership elections. Yet, through these organizations, he befriended and mentored students from across the country who were drawn into his sphere by word of mouth.

Medicinal Plant Researcher

Outside of the classroom, Williams investigated the medicinal properties of natural products, specifically native African plants. On two separate occasions in the 1980s as a Fulbright Senior Research and Teaching Scholar, he spent several months in Lagos, Nigeria, presenting lectures and conducting research into medicinal plants as potential anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial agents as well as plants to treat Sickle Cell Disease. His investigations extended beyond Nigeria to other African countries, including Ghana and The Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly known as The Democratic Republic of Zaire). Results of his investigations were later published in peer-reviewed journals.

He has served as an organizing committee of the MALTO Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy Meeting-in-Miniature since its infancy in the early 1970s, which included volunteering to drive participating UHCOP students and fellow faculty members to and from the regional conferences in host cities across the five Southern member-states.

He also is a past-president of the UH Chapter of Phi Kappa Phi International Honor Society.

Green from the Greens

In 1979, Williams and UHCOP alumnus and former faculty member Larry McClaugherty ('72) co-founded the college's scholarship golf tournament. Still going strong 45 years later, the tournament raises thousands of dollars each year for student scholarships and travel funds and spawned one of the college's scholarship endowments.

"I never would have dreamed that I would still be in this position 50 years later, and that so many alumni, colleagues and friends would take the time to be part of this overwhelming celebration," Williams said.