Bertram Williams Jr., a leading figure in the New Hanover County medical community for many decades, died Monday morning at the hospital, according to family members.

He was 95.

Williams was a retired general surgeon who is credited with playing a significant role in the development of the area’s health care landscape.

“One of the things he was most proud of in his life was to feel like he had a big part in promoting quality delivery of health care in the greater Wilmington community,” Williams’ son Bert Williams III said Monday.

Funeral arrangements were not immediately available. Andrews Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Betram Williams was slated to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award on Saturday at the Greater Wilmington Business Journal's Health Care Heroes Awards. A memorial honor still will be planned, organizers said.

The son of a downtown Wilmington merchant, Williams earned his medical degree at Vanderbilt University before being assigned to the Second Marine Division during World War II. He applied his medical skills at Saipan and Okinawa and aided shipmates after a Japanese kamikaze attack.

Williams returned to Wilmington in 1951 to open his surgical practice and was active until his retirement in 1991. In addition to being part of a busy surgical practice, Williams became involved in the wider medical community in the area.

When the city’s aging James Walker Memorial Hospital needed replacement and funding for the project stalled, Williams took a leadership role in advocating for a bond issue to build a new hospital. He surveyed the proposed site for the hospital on horseback, since the site – where the NHRMC hospital campus now stands – was heavily wooded and there was no road access.

As the medical community grew and diversified, Williams co-founded Wilmington Surgical Associates and was chief of staff at New Hanover Regional, in addition to serving terms on the medical center board of trustees and chairing the board. He played a leading role in creating the NHRMC Foundation, which helps fund the hospital’s mission independent of tax dollars.

“Dr. Williams was a wonderful surgeon, a dear friend and made enormous contributions to this community,” Williams’ colleague and friend John Powell, a gynecologic oncologist in Wilmington, said Monday afternoon.

Not only was Williams an accomplished medical professional, he was also a caring person who provided access to medical care for people who could not afford it, Powell said.

Speaking to the Business Journal earlier this year, Williams’ grandson Tram Williams said of his grandfather, “He did not turn anyone away that needed his help. It seems that his medical career was so much more than a job.”

Along with his wife, Ellen, Bertram Williams became involved in addressing domestic violence. When he leased space in a property he owned to one of Domestic Violence Shelter and Services Inc.’s legacy agencies, he donated rent payments back to the agency.

Since retirement, Powell said, Williams stayed busy with his “huge” farm near the airport, Powell said.

“In his last years [Williams] considered himself a farmer,” he said. “He grew corn and soybeans and grapes – and horses. Each year when the corn harvest came in he would invite friends and come out. He and his team of workers would give away the corn to these folks. A week later, he’d do the same thing for people in the neighborhood. He was still farming as of last week."

Bonnie Jeffreys Brown, executive director of the New Hanover-Pender County Medical Society, said in an email Monday afternoon that Williams "elevated the term 'unique' to an entirely different level."

She said that in addition to being a physician, Williams was an "astute business man, farmer, loyal friend, philanthropist and true Southern Gentleman. His knowledge of area history was encyclopedic - and he gave fascinating talks without notes.  At ninety-five, he continued to do it all until the very end!  His was a life well-lived, the quality of which most of can only aspire. He was a treasure. I loved him, dearly."