Transportation Chairman Williamson Dies

Ric Williamson, well-known chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission and seven-term state lawmaker from Weatherford, died Dec. 30, 2007, at the age of 55.
“Ric Williamson was one of those rare public officials who was not only a visionary who saw things that needed to be done, but also a dedicated worker who had the ability to get them done,” said Tarrant County Commissioner J.D. Johnson, president of the County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas. “His passing has left a vacancy that will be hard to fill.”
Gov. Rick Perry named Williamson to the Texas Transportation Commission in 2001 and then appointed him as chairman in January 2004. The Texas Transportation Commission is a five-member board appointed by the governor to oversee the Texas Department of Transportation.
Williamson became one of the chief crusaders for Gov. Perry’s Trans Texas Corridor, designed to be a system of toll roads and free roads to break the choke hold on urban congestion. Critics denounced the state’s contract with a Spanish firm to build and operate the toll roads and railed against a possible usurping of private land needed for the new thoroughfares, along with the pace of the project.
Despite the criticism, Williamson was also praised for his courage and labeled a visionary with an inventive mind by the likes of Paul Burka, Texas Monthly’s senior executive editor.
In 1985, at age 33, Williamson began serving as a Democrat in the Texas House, where he was known as a fiscal conservative. Before he left the Legislature in 1998, as a Republican, Texas Monthly picked him twice as one of the best 10 legislators, the Dallas Morning News one year named him among the best state lawmakers, and the Texas Chamber of Commerce gave him its leadership award.
Williamson is survived by his wife, Mary Ann, three daughters, and two grandchildren.