Roger Lee Williams

Roger Lee Williams, "Bubba", went to be with the Lord on June 26, 2023. Bubba was
born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1931. He was faithfully and joyfully married to Sara Gene for sixty-one years. He served four years in the Navy Reserve.
He graduated from Louisiana Tech with a degree in mechanical engineering. He was a brilliant pipeline engineer and his career included helping design and build the Alaska Pipeline, working as a Vice President of Koch Industries, and the founder and president of All-American pipeline, the longest pipeline ever built in North America. His incredible career was secondary to his real passions, his love for God and love for his family. He served God and others in virtually every possible capacity at Olivet Baptist Church from 1969 to 1990. In 1990 he and Sara left Olivet to help with a new church plant, River Community Church. For the next thirty-three years Roger was the elder "statesman" of the church. Many, including his pastor/son, looked to him for wisdom and encouragement over the years. His service to Christ and others extended far beyond the walls of the church. He seemed to be virtually omnipresent in Wichita, sharing love, flowers, baked goods, and the gospel all over town. He was active and sharp up to the last two weeks of his great life. 
Anyone who knew him knew that his greatest love and passion was for his family. He was fierce and faithful in his devotion to his entire extended family. His capacity to actively pursue and pray twice daily for each one of them was amazing. He passionately loved his brothers Robert (deceased), Harry, and his sister, Helen. He gave his life away for the good and success of his children, Donna (Tim), Paul, Terry (Christy), and Russell (Julie). He knew all of his thirteen grandchildren in deep and meaningful ways. He pursued and engaged each one of them with an interest and energy that was uncanny. Remarkably, he didn't stop there, he gave the same great effort to know and love his twenty-four great grandchildren. Great-grandchild, number twenty-five, Conrad Paul preceded Bubba in death, so they are getting acquainted now. He found out on his most recent birthday that number twenty-six is on the way! 
Everyone who knew him, knows that the beating heart of Bubba was Sara Gene. Maybe some could match, but none could exceed, the love they shared. He never got over her passing, but he turned his grief into greater love and service for the good of others and the glory of God. "Well done, good and faithful servant!"

Memorial Gifts can be sent to:
River Community Church
2130 N. Oliver
Wichita, KS 67208
or
Youth Horizons
125 S. Washington Ave
Wichita, KS 67202