On Mar. 4, 1980, the first endowed chair at University of Washington School of Medicine created in memory of Dr. Robert H. Williams, founding chair of Department of Medicine.

The chair was created through the determined efforts of a grateful diabetic patient to honor the life and work of Dr. Robert H. Williams.  It took five years to pioneer and to meet the requirements and processes set forth to place an academic chair at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

In 1948, Dr. Robert H. Williams took a risk. The nationally prominent endocrinologist, who had spent 14 years at Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, and Harvard, accepted an appointment as the chair of the newly established Department of Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine. The medical school was only two years old.