Born in Lafayette, Indiana, just across the Wabash River from the West Lafayette campus he would one day attend on an ROTC scholarship, Williams grew up helping out on his family farm in Otterbein, Indiana. His favorite part of farm work was fixing equipment — taking things apart and putting them back together — so his pursuit of a mechanical engineering degree at Purdue was a logical choice.

After receiving his BSME degree in 1964, he began serving the requisite four years in the U.S. Navy in return for his ROTC scholarship, choosing to focus on aviation. He would stay much longer than four years.

Williams completed flight training and received his wings in May 1966. He was deployed to Vietnam twice before serving two years as a flight instructor at the Naval Air Station Lemoore, California. He then was deployed two more times to Vietnam, ultimately completing 330 combat missions.

In 1973, Williams attended the Armed Forces Staff College and graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School the following year. He was then assigned to the Naval Air Test Center's Carrier Suitability Branch of Flight Test Division.

When he was selected by NASA for astronaut training in January 1978, he had logged more than 6,000 hours of flying time, which included 5,700 hours in jets and 745 aircraft carrier landings.

Williams was recognized many times for exceptional service in the Navy with awards that included the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Defense Superior Service Medal, two Navy commendation medals with Combat V, two Navy unit commendations, a meritorious unit commendation, the National Defense Medal and the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal.

Williams became an astronaut in August 1979, qualifying to be a pilot on future Space Shuttle flight crews. At that time, he began work at the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory as a test pilot, and at the Kennedy Space Center participating in test, checkout, launch and landing operations for orbiters.

Before his first space flight in 1985, Williams served in a few roles at NASA, including deputy manager for Operations Integration in the National Space Transportation System Program Office at Johnson Space Center and deputy chief of the Aircraft Operations Division at the space center. He also served as chief of the Mission Support Branch within the Astronaut Office.

Williams logged a total of 287 hours and 35 minutes in space. In March 1990, he retired from the U.S. Navy and left NASA. He became a division manager with Science Applications International Corp., working on several projects in the Houston area, nationally and internationally.