Michael Collard Williams was born in the County of Shropshire, England. He immigrated first to the sheep ranches of the Okanagan in 1950 and then eight years later to Victoria, where established boarding kennels in Langford and Central Saanich.
In 1977 a career redirection involved him in the preservation and the improvement of Victoria’s downtown business and residential environment. Williams decided to preserve and to protect significant historical structures, while at the same time enhancing them with taste, imbuing them with colour, and revitalizing them. Williams largely focused his attention on old town Victoria, lower Johnson Street and the Victoria Box and Paper Building and the surrounds.
When Williams died on November 9, 2000 he left his downtown property holdings, house and art collections to the University of Victoria.