Summer of '66

In the August 2006 Texas Monthly article on Charles Whitman ("96 Minutes," by Pamela Colloff), Shelton Williams is a character in the recounting of the Whitman tragedy. Shelly was there when the shooting started, but it was not his first encounter with the young man who weaken so much havoc on that hot August day in Austin in 1966. While Shelly and Charlie did know each other, they were not friends and they were not adversaries at the University of Texas in the spring and summer of 1966. They were just two guys with troubled families, personal insecurities, and challenged young marriages. Summer of '66 is not about Charles Whitman and it is not about why the two young men took such different paths. It is memoir about life at UT, about a mystery man, and about a young man and woman who faced a changing and dangerous world in a courageous way. Charles Whitman is simply a character in this true story. Shelton and Janell Williams survived August 1, 1966, and the summer of '66. Shelly got a PhD in International Studies, taught at Austin College for thirty-six years and through the organization he founded and of which he is president, The Osgood Center for International Studies, continues to run the Washington Program for Austin College students and students from around the world. Janell graduated from Austin College and worked twenty-five distinguished years for the Social Security Administration. They now live in the Washington, DC area. Each thanks the other for forty-two years of eventful married life, and both look forward to the next "five year review" of their marriage. It comes up in 2009.