ET Williams

E.T. Williams, CEO of Elnora, Inc., attended Brooklyn College in 1955. At that time, he served as president of the Brooklyn College Chapter of the NAACP, raised money for sit-ins in the South, and received the Rheingold Good Neighbor Award for his community service. Williams received his B.A. degree in economics in 1960 and received his real estate and insurance license in 1959 to take over his father’s business while his father recovered from an illness. 

After teaching at a junior high school in Brooklyn, New York, he went to work for the Peace Corps. In 1963 in Washington, DC, Williams stood behind Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during his “I Have a Dream” speech. Williams then moved to Washington, DC, where he continued his work with the Peace Corps.

In 1969, Williams became the first African American officer of a commercial bank in the State of Maryland. In 1971 when he returned to New York City, joined Chase Manhattan and began working in institutional banking as a lending officer. Williams left banking in 1982 and returned to real estate as chairman of the board and head of the Fordham Hill Project. He retired in 1992 and began Elnora, Inc., a private family investment company. He serves on the Board of Directors of Fiduciary Trust Co. of New York and served as chair of the audit committee for eight years.

Williams is an avid African American art collector. Included in his collection are works of art by Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, and Aaron Douglas. He sits on several museum boards, including the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). Other boards include the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; the Nature Conservancy (the Long Island Chapter); the Trinity Church Wall Street; the Central Park Conservancy; and the Cathedral Church of St. John The Divine. Williams continues to collect art in New York City, Sag Harbor, Long Island; Dark Harbor, Maine; and Naples, Florida; where he resides with his wife and family.