On a sunny afternoon, Gary Williams savors a cool breeze and nearby rippling creek in Carter County as he tends his expansive garden of flowers, fresh vegetables, berries, herbs and fruit trees.
Early that morning, he could be found teaching at Unaka High School or the local alternative school, Lift Academy. Then he worked a six-hour shift as ETSU at Bristol’s sole security guard. And before he could get to the gardening, he prepared the evening meal for his best friend and wife of 39 years.
“I’m a busy man, but I like it that way,” Williams said. “I don’t want to waste a minute of my time doing nothing.”
The soft-spoken man in a pressed khaki uniform said he simply wants to help people. “The more you give back the more you get back,” Williams said.
Like so many venues in his life, at ETSU Bristol’s center Williams takes on many roles, including custodian, handyman, father, patrolman, public relations personnel and student recruiter. “I try to treat people like I want to be treated,” Williams said. “We all work together and make it what it is.”
ETSU at Bristol Director Sue Fulmer said Williams watches out for everyone, as you would your family. “He’s much more than a security guard,” Fulmer said.
Front clerk Robin Hyler said Williams is no ordinary security guard. “He could just sit around and do nothing, but he doesn’t,” she said. “He’s always up checking on the students and faculty or out in the parking lot inspecting the cars. Just last week he found a flat tire on a young lady’s car and kept her from a bumpy ride home.”
As an aide and substitute teacher in Carter County, Williams said he wants to help students succeed. Although some high school students are knuckleheads, he said, it’s worth the challenge. “People are innately good and you can bring the good out in them,” he said.
The driving force behind his passion for people resulted from the life-altering experiences he survived serving in the Vietnam conflict, Williams said. “When you go to war you leave a boy,” he said, “but come back an old man.”
After being drafted, Williams, then a newlywed, said he only served one year in combat, but his outlook on life changed dramatically. “As a soldier you’re trying to help people, but it’s different,” he said. “You do what you’re told.”
For years, Williams carried guilt of destroying peoples’ lives, he said, but discovered his own self-therapy – working to help others.
“Some might think its crazy, but it works for me,” he said. “You help yourself when you help somebody else.”
He traded in a hectic job as the international vice president for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, for the relaxed, friendly atmosphere at Bristol and still sees himself a success, Williams said.
“Success is being happy,” he said. “If I died tomorrow they could write ‘He was a success’ on my tombstone …
“If you’re in it for the money, you’ll never have enough. I don’t have much but I love getting up every morning. Money couldn’t buy the friendships I’ve found here.

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