Professor Allan Williams was a Welsh coastal geologist and geographer who received his Ph.D. from Hong Kong University. His home base was the University of Glamorgan (now University of South Wales), but Allan was a worldwide traveler who held positions at such places as the University of Virginia, University of Canterbury in New Zealand, Ocean University in China, Swansea Metropolitan University in Wales, and University of West Fiords in Iceland.

While Allan was a visiting professor at the University of Virginia, I had the privilege of having him join me during my dissertation research at Assateague Island, Maryland. Few people wanted to work under those horrendous conditions (e.g., taking field measurements of storm-generated overwash surges during winter nor'easters), but Allan cherished the challenge. We wrote six refereed journal articles together based on this research and collaborated on other topics in later years.

Allan was a prolific writer and speaker, with more than 300 papers and more than 200 presentations at various national and international scientific conferences. While Allan was a coastal scientist extraordinaire, he also published short stories, poetry, and even novels (with Hong Kong Nemesis as a notable one). He was married to his wonderful traveling soulmate, Hilary, and they lived in Porthcawl, South Wales, United Kingdom. Allan will always be an inspiration to us all, especially those seeking to experience new adventures and make scientific discoveries; he will be sorely missed.

Stephen P. Leatherman

Florida International University Miami, Florida

Professor Allan Williams was a remarkable person who could always light up the room with a literary reference or a tale from his vault of coastal research experiences. A classic example is an entry he wrote for JCR Special Issue 101 (Stories from the Field: 50 Years of Coastal Fieldwork: 1970–2020), in which he so eloquently composed:

I have often wondered what the great short story writers of this world – Du Maupassant, Melville, William Trevor, Angela Carter and of course the doyen of them all, W. Somerset Maugham, would have made of the many diverse characters that one meets on beaches. The latter had an instinctive eye for the idiosyncrasies of Homo sapiens, honed by an unobtrusive nature and was a very acute listener. He would have made a good Samaritan. Who can forget the doomed beach romance of Red in the story of the same name on an idyllic South Pacific island? I have come across many oddball characters in my own beach work and the stories he would have weaved around them would have been priceless.

Allan will be eternally remembered among his friends, family, and peers. We pay homage to his uncanny humor, his razor-sharp wit, and his tremendous contribution to our coastal research community.

Christopher Makowski

Coastal Education & Research Foundation (CERF)

Journal of Coastal Research (JCR)

Charlotte, North Carolina

©Coastal Education and Research Foundation, Inc. 2023