"Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun."

Professor Ed Williams has been on Auburn University's journalism faculty since 1983. He follows in the footsteps of founding journalism department head Jack Simms in teaching the infamous introductory course, Journalism 101 (Newspaper Style), which was renamed Journalism 1100 (Newspaper Fundamentals) when Auburn converted to the semester system in fall 2000. (Students still are required to memorize Strunk and White's Rule 17, "Omit Needless Words," and "the leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words").

He also serves as the journalism internship director.

Most of Williams' newspaper experience is in community journalism -- a career that took him to two weekly and two daily newspapers -- The South Alabamian in Jackson, The Montgomery Advertiser, The Brewton Standard and The Andalusia Star-News -- before joining Auburn's journalism department in 1983. During his nearly 26 years at Auburn, Williams has done summer reporting at several Alabama weeklies through the Alabama Press Association's Journalism Foundation Summer Work Program. He served as a fill-in editor and reporter at The South Alabamian, in Jackson, The Clarke County Democrat in Grove Hill, The Atmore Advance and The Monroe Journal in Monroeville.

He also assists with projects for the Alabama Press Association and wrote a book, "The Press of Alabama: A History of the Alabama Press Association," to commemorate the press association's 125th anniversary in 1996.

Williams served 23 years as the faculty adviser of The Auburn Plainsman, the award-winning campus  newspaper that is published each Thursday.  He stepped down as faculty adviser after spring 2008.  At the time of Williams "retirement" from The Plainsman, he announced establishment of The King Edsel (Ed) Williams Jr. Endowed Scholarship in Journalism that will be awarded each year to a journalism student who works at  The Auburn Plainsman.

The Plainsman, recognized nationally as one of the top college newspapers in the United States, has received 23 Pacemaker Awards -- the college newspaper equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize.  Only one other major college newspaper (The Daily Texan at the University of Texas) has won more Pacemakers than The Plainsman.  The Plainsman was awarded the Pacemaker for five consecutive years, in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 and 2003 and again in 2005. The Plainsman also has received awards in other college newspaper competition, including the Society of Professional Journalists, Columbia Scholastic Press Association, College Newspaper Business and Advertising Managers, Southern University Newspapers and Southeastern Journalism Conference.

During his days as Plainsman adviser, Williams liked to call winning newspaper Pacemaker Awards "the college football equivalent of a national championship team."

"The Plainsman's reputation as a Pacemaker-winning newspaper reflects the national stature of Auburn's campus newspaper," Williams says.  "It demonstrates The Plainsman's excellence as a major college newspaper, and it reflects the hard work and dedication of the students who volunteer their time to produce the paper."

Williams was chosen recipient of the College Media Advisers’ 2008 Distinguished Adviser Award.  The CMA award is a national award given to advisers who have provided exemplary service to their institutions and students who also subscribe to and operate under the CMA Code of Ethics.

He was awarded the 2008 Auburn Alumni Association Undergraduate Teaching Award for excellence in teaching.  The award is given to teachers who are exceptional in their quality of teaching, knowledge of subject, interest in students and availability to them, and influence within Auburn University.

In summer 1997, Williams was awarded an Institute for Journalism Excellence fellowship by the American Society of Newspaper Editors to work as a general assignment reporter for The (Elyria) Chronicle-Telegram, a 35,000-circulation daily in northeast Ohio. As part of the fellowship, funded by a grant from the John S. and James L Knight Foundation, Williams attended a week-long industry update seminar at the American Press Institute in Reston, Va., before beginning his six-week newsroom residency in Ohio.

API seminar programs focused on the future of daily newspapers in the midst of dramatic change in the 21st century, and the relationship between educators and editors. At the end of his newsroom residency, Williams attended a debriefing seminar preceding the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication convention in Chicago.

He returned to the American Press Institute in Virginia in 1998 to share his Ohio to share his Ohio newsroom experiences. His topic: “From the Classroom to the Newsroom -- And Back to Tell the Tale.”

Williams was selected for the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn Summer Academy 2000 course development workshop to learn about integrating technology into coursework.

He is a charter member of the Academy of Teaching and Outstanding Teachers.  The College of Liberal Arts established the Academy in 2003 to recognize the career teaching achievements of top professors.  The college inducted 36 present and former faculty in spring 2003 as charter members of the Academy.  Future membership is limited to eight new members each year.

He received a teaching fellowship from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication to attend to attend a summer workshop at the School of Journalism at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind. The workshop, sponsored by the Gannett Foundation, stressed the teaching of writing, reporting and editing.

He also has received fellowships to attend programs at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Williams received his bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism from the University of Alabama.

He plans the annual Auburn Plainsman-Journalism open house and reunion held each fall at a home football game. 

Williams enjoys gardening in his back yard.

"The most important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative, and the second disastrous."