James T. Williams

James Theodore Williams, 86, of Waterville, Ohio, died peacefully on Thursday, August 27, 2026, at the Hospice of Northwest Ohio center in Perrysburg, surrounded by his family.

Ted was born October 6, 1939 in Toledo, Ohio, to James Thomas Williams and Eva Georgene Williams, and grew up in Toledo as one of four children. He played football, stood 6'2", and spent his boyhood summers on the family farm in Saline, Michigan.

After attending the University of Toledo, Ted worked as an industrial engineer for Jeep Corporation. The years he spent on the manufacturing line were among the proudest of his career, and the friendships he made there lasted the rest of his life. He went on to work for Fuqua Homes, and then spent many years with Starcraft. A salesman by trade, his work took him across the western United States and moved his family from the Midwest to California before he returned home to Ohio, where he lived for the past twenty years.

In 2008, during a visit back to Toledo, Ted reconnected with Patricia Hoffman, his sweetheart from his early years. They shared the last eighteen years together in Waterville, where they played morning cribbage and kept close to lifelong friends from the Toledo.

Ted was known for his warmth, his memory for names, and his ability to find a mutual acquaintance with nearly anyone he met. He loved music, playing cards, and being a tour guide to friends and family to all the cities he loved. He loved Christmas time and in recent years he built an elaborate Christmas village in his basement that recreated, in miniature, the towns, farms, and neighborhoods of his life.

He was preceded in death by his parents, James and Eva Williams, and his brother, Terrence Michael Williams.

Ted is survived by his partner, Patricia Hoffman of Waterville; his daughter, Michelle Williams Skoor, and her wife, Rebekah Janelle Skoor; his son, Jay Williams, and his partner, Lisa Cass Zellner; his granddaughters, Avila Skoor and Eloise Skoor; his grandson, Jayson Williams, his brother, Thomas Carl Williams; his sister, Margaret Ellen Haar; and many nieces, nephews, and friends.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Hospice of Northwest Ohio at https://www.hospicenwo.org/forms/donate-online-today/. The family hopes to direct these gifts toward a memorial stone in the garden at the hospice center. The family is grateful to the staff of Hospice of Northwest Ohio for their care.