Myrna D. Williams

Myrna was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 12, 1945.  A product of the New York City public school system, Myrna Edwards-Williams was raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn with two brothers, and her wonderful parents, Eleanor Boyce Edwards and James Arnold Edwards. Myrna was a natural, and excelled in her schoolwork, being Valedictorian when she graduated Junior High School 258 in Bed-Stuy.

At an early age, Myrna and her brothers, Milton and Eric Edwards, were introduced to the arts by their mother, a pianist and a poet.  Myrna attended Erasmus Hall High School, then moved on to receive her bachelor’s degree, cum laude in Elementary Education, and earned her master’s degree with honors in the area of Reading from Brooklyn College.  In 1979, she received an Advanced Graduate Study degree in Administration and Supervision from City College and was recognized for excellence. For more than thirty years, Myrna Williams devoted her life to the education of minority children. Her strong belief in the innate goodness of all children and their ability to overcome against the greatest odds, when supported by caring and dedicated educators, had drawn her to this vocation.

During the first ten years of her distinguished career, Myrna taught upper grade elementary school children, as well as intellectually gifted ones. Through the use of innovative teaching strategies, expertise as a reading specialist, a basic love of mathematics, and a natural ability to get children to believe in themselves, her students flourished. Myrna utilized an interdisciplinary approach to teach reading, while exposing her students to a variety of reading materials such as current events, poetry, social studies and the study of Ancient African Civilizations, which she considered vital for the success of her students.  In 1987, she was appointed Reading/Language Arts Coordinator for Community School District 17 where she provided professional development to elementary- and middle-school teachers and introduced the Lincoln-Douglass Debates.  In this dual role, as a library coordinator, she was instrumental in connecting libraries to the Inter-Library Loan System and promoting Library Power projects to rebuild and revitalize school libraries.   

In 1990, Myrna Williams was Assistant Principal of Middle School 246 where she focused her energies on the teachers in her department of Reading/Language Arts, in grades six through eight.  However, whenever the opportunity came, she would emphasize to the staff that ALL teachers are teachers of reading, and therefore all teachers needed to incorporate reading skills into their lessons. Myrna later became Principal of Public School 399.

Since her retirement from the public school system, Myrna has been engaged in community building.  She had the opportunity to work for many years with the Honorable Sidique Wai, and the United African Congress, and to support their efforts to eradicate Ebola.   Myrna also served as President of the Gates Avenue Block Association (GABA), and as Chair of Delta Sigma Theta’s International Awareness Committee.  Myrna worked tirelessly to raise funds to support the efforts of Doctors Without Borders in their fight to save African children from starvation.  Occasionally, she still found time to tutor children for free, and to help the Delta Sigma Theta’s Black Book Fair.

In 1962, Myrna met her husband Thomas Williams who passed away in 1984.  Myrna is survived by her son Deryl, and daughter Charisse; six grandchildren: Dior, Malik, Trayvon, Amira, Dakarai, and Kalyn; two great- grandchildren: Peter and Mekhi; other relatives, and a host of former faculty members, students, sorors, neighbors and friends.

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