Abraham Williams wasn’t even sure where Bowling Green was when he considered taking a job here in 1995. He has since become a community fixture who has influenced the lives of countless children and adults through his role overseeing the city’s public housing community.

Now, after 29 years as executive director of the Housing Authority of Bowling Green, Williams is ready to hand the reins to someone else.

He announced Tuesday to the HABG board of directors that he plans to retire Aug. 1.

“All good things must come to an end,” the 75-year-old Williams said after Tuesday’s board meeting at the HABG offices on Double Springs Road. “It’s time to pass it on while I’m young enough to still be active and keep some programs going.”

The announcement wasn’t welcomed by board members who must now begin a search for the next executive director or by members of the HABG staff Williams has assembled.

“I grew up in this area, and years ago we didn’t have the programs that he (Williams) has brought,” said Carlos Bailey, a Bowling Green city commissioner who serves on the housing authority board. “He has brought positive change for this community, and that’s a great legacy.”

That positive change goes far beyond overseeing a public housing community in Bowling Green’s west end. Williams has initiated programs like after-school and summer educational programs for school-age children, welfare-to-work programming to help adults find jobs and a mobile grocery that brings healthy food to low-income neighborhoods.

“He is managing this housing authority, so he’s a landlord who must maintain buildings and collect rent, but that’s almost a side job for him,” said Kevin Brooks, a longtime HABG supporter who was at Tuesday’s meeting. “He just cares about his people so much and wants to lift them up.”

That is evident when you talk to Williams. He is most proud of the welfare-to-work program that has helped HABG residents become self-sufficient and the programming for school-aged children that has exposed them to college campuses, career opportunities and even international travel.

Using contacts he has made in the Bowling Green business community, Williams was able to raise the money to send a total of 45 housing authority youngsters on two-week excursions to China.

“It was a chance for public housing kids to travel,” he said. “It opened their eyes.”

Visits to college campuses and technical schools have also been eye-openers for HABG residents, launching some on career paths they may not have envisioned.

“You can’t tell people what they can become,” Williams said. “They have to see it and touch it for themselves.”

Williams has applied that same philosophy when working with the housing authority’s adult residents, implementing programs that encourage entrepreneurship and home ownership.

Most recently, the HABG’s Live the Dream Development arm has begun work on an affordable-housing project on a 23-acre site abutting the Housing Authority’s Garvin House property on Fort Webb Drive near Bowling Green Country Club.

“Some of the greatest times of my life have come from seeing someone move from public housing to home ownership,” Williams said. “They can get emotional.”

Williams himself gets emotional when talking about another project that will continue after his retirement: the small business accelerator on College Street, a partnership involving Houchens Industries and the city of Bowling Green that will provide spaces for minority, low-income and international residents to launch small businesses.

“The College Street business incubator, that’s a dream come true,” he said. 

Such programming provides plenty of work for the staff of 44 full-timers and 17 part-timers Williams has assembled at the housing authority. A couple of long-time staffers who were at Tuesday’s meeting didn’t expect Williams’ announcement.

“We knew it was coming sometime, but we weren’t prepared for it today,” said Shannah Banks-Dixon, the HABG’s director of education and only the second person hired by Williams. “He has been a father figure for us. We’re a family, and we’re losing the head of our family.”

Banks-Dixon calls Williams’ retirement “a tremendous loss” for the Bowling Green community.

“His love and compassion for people is very infectious,” she said. “He’s one of the kindest human beings you’ll ever meet. That’s something we don’t see much anymore.”

Like Banks-Dixon, 24-year HABG employee Shawmeen Sublett hated to hear the news.

“He (Williams) gave me an opportunity when I was a young single mom,” Sublett said. “He was a mentor to my son. He’s not just a boss. He has been a friend.”

Williams, a Phenix City, Alabama, native, hopes to stick around long enough to help implement some HABG programs, even as a volunteer; but his days in the city he discovered nearly three decades ago may be numbered.

“My wife and I are trying to figure out what we’re going to do,” he said. “My heart is in Alabama, but I love it here.”

Williams’ retirement leaves Bailey and other members of the HABG board with the tall task of finding a worthy successor to a man who brought national recognition to the city through his innovative programming.

“It’s going to be hard,” Bailey said. “I hope we can find somebody to carry on the legacy.”