The JC Williams Center is the social hub of Franciscan: where students gather each day to do homework, get food or simply hang out. I spend most of my time there, as do many “JC Rats” across campus. However, I was sitting with my friends in the JC a while back, and one of my friends asked an important question: “Who even was JC Williams, anyway?” 

None of us knew. Unlike many other buildings across campus named for prominent figures in Franciscan’s history, the JC has no plaque, poster or statue indicating the significance of its namesake. The closest guess we had was that “JC” stood for “Jesus Christ.” Was JC Williams even a real person? As it turns out, he was, though he was never officially affiliated with Franciscan, as he died ten years prior to the school’s founding. His impact on the school’s early days, though, cannot be understated. 

John Charles Williams was born in Kidwelly, Wales, in 1876, as the son of Thomas Williams, who was making his name in the steel business during the European Industrial Revolution. Williams was raised in his father’s business, working his way into the steel business in the late 1800s. During this time, the Industrial Revolution was beginning to shift from Europe to the United States, and the steel industry was beginning to take root in the Rust Belt region, with Pittsburgh as its hub. Williams, in 1897, came to the region to build his fortune in steel. 

While in America, Williams became business partners with Ernest Weir, and the two would found the Weirton Steel Company in 1909, along with a surrounding town named Weirton. He was made the chief executive of the company, during which he expanded Weirton Steel into one of the largest steel manufacturers in the United States by the end of the 1920s. Williams would head the company until 1936, when he died of a sudden illness. However, his story was far from over. 

Following his death, his widow, Anna, founded the JC Williams Charitable Trust, a nonprofit organization dedicated to education and welfare in the Weirton-Steubenville area. The organization would provide donations to numerous institutions in Weirton and Steubenville, with one of those institutions being the College of Steubenville. The College, which had seen much growth since its founding in 1946, was looking to add a student recreation center, overseen by university president Rev. Kevin Keelan, TOR. The JC Williams Charitable Trust offered to fund the building’s construction, offering a grant of $250,000 to the university, provided that the building was named in Williams’ honor. Rev. Keelan accepted, and in 1970, 34 years after Williams’ death, the JC Williams College Center opened its doors, with amenities including a bookstore, a game room, a basketball court, a hot tub, a sauna and multiple student lounges with fireplaces and TVs. The opening coincided perfectly with record attendance for the school, with an enrollment of 1,333 students that year.

Today, the JC Williams Center still stands as the social hub of campus, through unprecedented attendance growth, several renovations and three name changes to the school. While it may not have a sauna or a basketball court anymore, it still serves its original purpose of “incorporating leisure time with study in education, which gives maximum opportunity for growth of the individual,” as was stated in its opening brochure. So, whenever you find yourself with your friends in the JC, take some time to thank JC Williams, whose fruits of his labor continue to last even today.