Gonsalvo Cotobus Williams, Jr.

Gonsalvo Cotobus Williams, Jr. was born in 1896 in Newberry, South Carolina. His parents were Gonsalvo Cotobus Williams and Alice Irene Simmons Williams.

He completed degrees at Benedict College in 1916 and Harvard in 1918 before serving in the military during World War I. Upon returning to the US in 1919, he began medical school at Harvard University. In 1921, he left Harvard for the Yale School of Medicine, where he received his MD in 1925. During his time at Yale, he lived off campus with his brother, Cecil Bonneau Williams, a Yale College student, at 9 High Street and 100 Park Street.

Williams’ racial identity varies in official records, and he may have identified differently at various times in his life. In census records from his youth in South Carolina, he and his family members are identified as being of African descent. In later census records he is identified as white, as is his brother.

He was an intern and resident at Grasslands Hospital in Westchester County, New York, and later went into private medical practice in nearby Dobbs Ferry. He was a member of Gamma Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. Williams died in 1986.

"The Influence of the Intravenous Injection of Protein on Blood Sugar Content." M.D. diss., Yale University, 1925.