LCWA Founder Louis C. Williams, Jr. Dies

Louis C. Williams, Jr.

Louis C. Williams, Jr., founder of Chicago-based agency L.C. Williams & Associates, died on December 27. He was 77 years old.

Williams founded LCWA in 1985. The mid-size, full-service PR and research agency currently employs about two dozen and specializes in corporate relations, crisis, financial relations and public affairs. The firm, which has acquired a number of agencies during its three-plus decades in business, bought Oakbrook Terrace, IL-based food and beverage shop JSH&A Communications last year.

Williams retired from LCWA in 2009 and assumed the role of chairman. The agency is now led by president and CEO Kim Blazek Dahlborn. LCWA accounted for more than $4.5 million last year and was ranked by O’Dwyer’s as one of the largest PR shops in the Chicago area by net fees.

Williams formerly served as chairman of the International Association of Business Communicators and was also named a fellow in the organization. He also was a fellow of the Institute for Public Relations and its Measurement Commission.

In 2003, Williams authored the best-selling 2003 IABC book, “Communication Research, Measurement and Evaluation: A Practical Guide for Communicators,” and was partially responsible for the creation of the research project “Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management,” the largest such project ever conducted on the value of PR.

He is survived by his wife, Mary Moster, as well as two daughters and a son, five grandchildren and a sister.

A tribute page has been set up in his honor, where expressions of sympathy and photos may be shared.