Honoured Member:
Judy Williams
photo by James Loewen
For 51 years as the Chair of the Wreck Beach Preservation Society (WBPS), I have advocated for Wreck Beach and its surrounding cliffs, beaches, and foreshore. At one point UBC wanted to shame nudists by cutting 144 acres of forests to install viewing platforms with telescopes aimed at the beach! We have fought over the years to keep Wreck Beach and its environs nude and natural, stopping roads, bridges, a ferry, a truck crossing from Richmond, millions of gallons of jet fuel from being barged past Wreck, weekly, and even an island from being built with high rises right in front of the main beach.
The mighty Fraser River flows past Wreck at its mouth. As Co-Chair of the Fraser River Coalition, I have participated in Pacific Spirit Regional Park since it formed which brought me in conflict with anti-nudity prejudice of UBC and its neighbours. Today, I continue to defend the Fraser's estuary including Wreck's rich forage fish surf smelt fishery.
As the Government Affairs Officer for the Federation of Canadian Naturists (FCN) since 1994, I have represented Canadian Naturist rights to raise their children as naturists to Parliament's House of Commons and fought for naturist rights on public lands through TERA (Topfree Equal Rights Association), the FCN, the Naturist Society (TNS), the Naturist Action Committee (NAC) and the Naturist Education Foundation (NEF). I've faced rifle-toting anti-nudists in Beaconia, Manitoba, and was rescued by an RCMP officer when an angry Beaconian with a rifle in his truck's back window tried to run me down! I also appeared on Atlantic Canada TV to protect Nova Scotia's Crystal Crescent Beach.
Through the Naturist Society's NAC/NEF political arms, I also defended California's Chumash Indians' ancient burial ground above San Louis Obismo's nude beach which encouraged their support of nudity there and also helped defend Wisconsin's Mazo Beach from religious zealots. I was the second recipient of the Lee Baxandall Annual Award for naturist activism.
I obtained my Master's from UBC and taught high school journalism and special education for 41 years. I earned my wings in 1975 and formed the first branch of the BC 99's, a world-wide women's pilot group begun by Amelia Earhart in the 1920's. I love flying, animals, silver-smithing, water colour painting and PNW ethnobotany. I operate a plant nursery, garden nude and reside beside a ravine, home to coyotes, deer and spawning salmon. I live with seven cats, two parrots and my Shorky dog, Callie.
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