Ed Williams

For 25 years Ed Williams was editor of the editorial pages at The Charlotte Observer, where his columns and editorials were part of projects that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1981 and 1988. He's the author of a recent book, "Liberating Dixie: An Editor's Life, from Ole Miss to Obama."

He earned a B.A. in history from the University of Mississippi where he edited the student daily newspaper. He served two years in the U.S. Army and in 1967 joined Hodding Carter's Delta Democrat-Times in Greenville, Miss., as a reporter. He was a Nieman fellow at Harvard and a writer for the Ford Foundation before coming to The Observer in 1973.

He retired in 2008 and was inducted into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame. He was chosen for the Order of the Long Leaf Pine for extraordinary service to the state. He lives in Charlotte with his wife, Marylyn. Their son, Jonathan, is a lawyer in Washington. For information, see his website: www.edwilliamsbooks.com