Christopher Williams, 74, of Middletown, Conn., and Barters Island, died peacefully on April 4, 2014, after a long fight with cancer.

A graduate of the Loomis School and Cornell University, Chris served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and worked as an esteemed architect in Connecticut for 45 years.

Though Chris lived most of his life in Connecticut, it was the shores of the Sheepscot River that were especially beloved to him. As a child he spent many happy hours in the company of his beloved aunt, Eleanor Stoughton Stubenrauch, at her cottage. Later, the cottage passed on to him and his three siblings, Steven Williams, Nancy Brown and Norma Madden, the latter of whom predeceased him shortly before his death. In later years, brothers Steven and Chris owned the cottage.

For many years, Chris and his wife, Tracy Hallstead, and their two daughters, Elise and Eva, loved summer days by the Sheepscot, as before them, did he with his first, now late, wife, Brenda, and their four children, Megan, Matthew, Amanda and Nathaniel Williams. Good friends to them over the years were Carroll and Alta Greenleaf. Life at the Williams cottage will go on and stories passed to children and grandchildren, but Chris will always be most dearly missed.

A service in celebration of the Resurrection will be held April 12, 2014 at the Middletown Church of the Holy Trinity, where Chris had served as usher, teacher, Vestryman and Warden.

Messages of condolence may be sent to the family at www.doolittlefuneralservice.com.