Hawk Mountain Owner’s Association

Some highlights of his career included the three Hawk properties in Vermont: Hawk Mountain in Pittsfield in 1966, Timber Hawk in Stockbridge in 1967 and Great Hawk in Rochester in 1968. Mr Williams decided to use a central water well for all Hawk Mountain residents (since disused) and a central sewer for Great Hawk, both of which at that time were quite revolutionary in rural construction.  Mr. Williams was also involved in the development of the Sunrise area in Killington, Salt Ash in Plymouth VT, and the new Peak Lodge at Killington ski resort in 2010. 

Although he had no discernible accent, Mr. Williams was originally a southern man and was born on May 21, 1931, in Chattanooga, TN. During his formative high school years he was a Golden Gloves champion boxer and he went on to earn a degree in engineering from the University of Tennessee, a well-respected Southern Baptist school. After a short stint in the U.S. Air Force as a jet pilot, Mr. Williams discovered the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright and he was hooked. He honed his true calling as an architect at the Harvard School of Design and while there, discovered the rich green mountains of Vermont. Soon after graduating, he moved to Vermont in 1961 and he founded the Hawk Mountain community in Pittsfield, which became his first major construction project.  With a small loan from a friend and with the vision of creating environmentally harmonious homes from wood and stone, he carefully sited the homes in nature and designed them to help elevate the human spirit.

The company went on to build several hundred homes over the decades both in the United States and abroad, employing many local contractors and artisans. His approach with the Hawk community in Pittsfield was to build every home in a slightly different design, but all retaining the same overall style. His idea was to make each home fit into the landscape while ensuring privacy between neighbors, all the while keeping the country feel of the community and blending into the forest. Some of the designs were pretty radical for the day, but now many of the homes look like one-of-a-kind contemporary custom designed homes.

In the last few years of his life Mr. Williams dedicated several hours each morning to the reading and writing of poetry and painting. Mr. Williams was in fact a very accomplished artist and had many critical successes as a water colorist and his art has found a wider audience outside Vermont.  For many years Mr. Williams and his wife Annabelle sailed around the world on their sloop, the Goldenrod II, during chilly Vermont winter months, collecting memories and friends from dozens of cultures.

Robert Carl Williams Jr., died at 84 years old at his home in Pittsfield, Vermont on Saturday, December 26, 2015 and is survived by his second wife, three grown children and their families. His home still resides next to the original Hawk Community in Pittsfield that he built. A celebration of Mr. Williams’ life took place on his 85th birthday, May 21, 2016, with friends and family in the backyard of his home on Upper Michigan Road in Pittsfield VT, which he often cited as his “favorite place in the world.”