CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – The Clay County community is grieving after the loss of the sheriff’s office’s chaplain who was “full of love, life, and faith.”
Chaplain Joseph “Joe” Williams was beloved by deputies and the inmates. Williams combined his love of law enforcement and faith to make a difference in his community.
It would be obvious even to a stranger that Williams was a kind man and the light for many living in a dark place.
He talked about his passion in a video on the CCSO Facebook page from 2021.
“I want to instill into every member of this agency that you have a chapel and that you can come and talk to,” Williams said. “You have somebody that is just willing to listen. The inmates, whatever I can say, whatever I can do to help them, to help them somewhat come to the mindset of ‘Hey, I need to change my life.’”
Larry Henry is the Chief of Detention Security and has worked for Clay County since 2000. He talked about how Williams interacted with inmates as chaplain.
“He had a wonderful relationship with the inmates they loved him they adored him,” Henry said. “They saw him going down the hallway and they would all reach to him and talk to him.”
That‘s why Oct. 30 was such a devastating day for the sheriff‘s office when Williams passed away in his home. It’s unclear how he died.
“I’ve been in law enforcement for 34 years and walking up the steps to his room was probably one of the toughest moments in my career,” Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook said.
She said the phone call she got that morning when she learned he passed took her breath away.
“Chaplain Williams or Joe as I called him, he was the one that we all leaned on,” Cook said. “And so now this pillar for the agency and a pillar in the community, our pillar had fallen and it literally took my breath away and I remember driving over to his house right after he was found.”
Henry said many of the inmates in the jail are devastated and grieving. “A lot of them are feeling the same way, loss and sorrow and he just made that kind of impact,” Henry said.
The CCSO said that Williams was “full of love, life, and most importantly, faith.”
Though Williams can never be replaced, a grieving community will forever have memories of the chaplain who loved everyone.
“He was irreplaceable one of a kind,” Henry said.
Cook said he was closing on a home the day he passed away, but his family said he’s going home to heaven.
Click here to see the obituary or send flowers to the visitation and funeral services which will take place on Nov. 9.