Cecil Williams, Longtime Pastor of Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, California, Dies at 94

The Rev. Cecil Williams, a social justice activist and longtime pastor of Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, died Monday at the age of 94. He led the Tenderloin neighborhood church, which he became pastor of in 1963 and helped develop into a nationally known congregation and social service nonprofit. Over the following six decades, he built and oversaw multiple community outreach programs that have offered support to hundreds of thousands of impoverished residents in the city.

The most prominent of these is the Free Meals Program, launched in 1980. It provides three free hot meals a day to anyone in need and serves hundreds of thousands of meals each year. Williams was also known for his welcoming approach to the LGBT community and his firm support of civil rights.

Ernestine Nettles, an Oakland resident who has volunteered at Glide for more than 50 years and first met Williams when she was a child, said, “One very special thing about Cecil was that he met everyone where they were, literally and spiritually.” She recalled that when people could not come to the church for a Thanksgiving meal, volunteers packed meals and took them to the streets to hand out to anyone there. Nettles said Williams did not pass judgment and loved people as they were, treating everyone as equals regardless of race, age, background, economic status, sexuality, or past. He welcomed strangers to his table (Matthew 25:35).

Nettles described Williams as a champion of local and national social justice causes. She said he once came to her Oakland high school to help her campaign to allow girls to wear pants. “He was a drum major for justice,” she said.

Williams was born Sept. 22, 1929, and raised in the segregated West Texas town of San Angelo. He was the grandson of a slave and one of six children. After moving to San Francisco, he helped revive Glide with Janice Mirikitani, who later became his wife. Mirikitani died in 2021. With the addition of a chorus and a band, the church began hosting spirited Sunday services that drew a diverse congregation.

Williams retired as the church’s pastor in 2000 but kept his roles as Minister of Liberation and CEO of the GLIDE Foundation, an organization that now has a budget of more than $20 million and thousands of members. He officially stepped down last year. Randy Shaw, director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic and author of a book on the neighborhood’s history, said Williams’s leadership was transformative. When Williams was hired, Shaw said, the congregation had dwindled to almost single digits. “He decided to be a fierce advocate for social justice and civil rights,” Shaw said. He also became an outspoken advocate for lesbian, gay, and transgender rights at a time when, Shaw said, San Francisco police were arresting gay and lesbian people for being in bars.

In a statement, Mayor London Breed called Williams “the conscience of our San Francisco community.” She said he “spoke out against injustice and he spoke for the marginalized.” Breed also noted how Williams championed supportive housing and “wraparound” services for people in need.

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