Longtime mental health professional, mother of Harvard man

Rita S. Williams, 91, wife of the late James B. Williams and a longtime resident of Lexington and Concord, died Feb. 22, 2010.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Jan. 8, 1919, the second of nine children, she graduated from Notre Dame Academy in 1937 and Cleveland College of Western Reserve University in 1942, with a comprehensive major in social work, sociology and teaching.

In 1943 she enlisted in the newly-formed Marine Corps Women’s Reserve, serving as an instructor of Celestial Navigation in Cherry Point, N.C. While in the Corps she met and married her husband, James, and held the rank of staff sergeant until the dissolution of the Reserve in 1947. In 1949 the couple moved to Cambridge, where Rita earned a master’s degree in social work from Boston University.

Settling in Lexington in 1953, she began her distinguished career by helping to design the community mental heath system for the state of Massachusetts. She held positions at the Massachusetts Association of Mental Heath, the Dedham Evening Clinic, and the Boston School of Occupational Therapy, as well as serving as vice president on the board of the Lexington Counseling Service. In 1958 she helped organize the Mystic Valley Mental Health Association, and in 1959 served as chairwoman of the Personnel Practices Committee of the Massachusetts Association of Mental Health.

In 1963, Rita accepted a position with the Concord Family Service Society, where she served as executive director for nearly 20 years. Under her leadership the agency grew into a comprehensive community service organization, providing the towns of Acton, Carlisle, Concord, and Maynard with individual and group counseling services.

After her retirement in 1982, she continued to serve as a board member of Middlesex Savings Bank and maintained active memberships with Quota International and the Nashawtuc Country Club of Concord, where she regularly managed the scoring tent at the annual PGA Senior Championship, and where she was a longstanding member of the inter-club Duplicate Bridge team.

Rita is survived by her six children: James and his wife, Jean, of Lexington; Barbara and her husband, Steven Defuria, of Northridge, Calif.; Jonathan and his wife, Judi, of Harvard; Christopher, of Lowell; Catherine Tucker, of Niskayuna, N.Y.; Bryan and his wife, Molly, of Bridgewater; nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. She is also survived by two sisters, Helen Egan of Pacific Palisades, Calif., and Anna Marie Katt of Zanesville, Ohio; and one brother, Joseph Schwarz, of Cleveland, Ohio.

A wake is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 26, from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Douglas Funeral Home in Lexington. A funeral Mass to be held Saturday, Feb. 27, at 10 a.m. at St. Brigid’s Parish in Lexington.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Rita’s memory can be made to the Handicapped Accessible fund of St. Brigid Parish, 2001 Mass. Ave., Lexington, MA 02421.