The career of Hugh Williams II follows a path that Hugh took to transform the old line firm of Drake-Williams-Mount Co., his family’s original sheet metal and boiler repair company into Drake-Williams Steel, Inc., a multi-plant structural and miscellaneous steel fabrication business. It amounted to making a transition from steam powered equipment to modern electro-hydraulics. After a stretch of military service, Hugh moved the company in a completely new direction: structural steel fabrication for all kinds of buildings, despite the fact that the company had no experience in this field. Soon after Hugh became President, he enlisted the support of his employees by establishing a profit sharing plan, thereby boosting employee morale and gaining the confidence of local bankers and suppliers. Soon the company began to win more contracts, purchasing new equipment and acquiring some less successful plants, plus expanding into additional markets. Company sales increased fifteen-fold and Drake-Williams furnished steel for many of Omaha’s well-known landmarks, including the Creighton Dental School, Children’s Memorial Hospital, W. Dale Clark Library, and Joslyn Art Museum. After retirement and this success in the business, he wrote a book, Steel Resolve, which is a history of both the company and of early Omaha. Hugh has given generously for CHS projects, including donating the large bronze “Victory Eagle” at the entrance to Seemann Stadium, providing financial assistance for Central’s 150th celebration, and establishing a new annual scholarship, named the Augusta Turpin Memorial English Scholarship, given in her honor to a deserving CHS senior student.
Hugh passed away in 2022 at the age of 91.