John Beaumont Williams, affectionately known to many as JBW, lectured at the University of New England (Armidale) in Taxonomy, Anatomy and Ecology from 1957 until his retirement in 1992. In his retirement he continued to be actively involved in many research and community-based projects. John graduated from Sydney university with B.Sc.(Hons) in botany. He was made a Fellow of the University of New England in 1994 in recognition of his long and distinguished service.

John shared his passion for plants and their conservation through his formal teaching at the University, community-based schools (especially the Ecofest series from the mid 70s) and his general interest in various conservation causes.

John was the leader and lecturer at Ecofest schools in North Eastern N.S.W. and southern Queensland and for these schools user-friendly field and identification guides based on vegetative features were developed on rainforest plants, heaths, eucalypts and wattles. Gwen and Bill collaborated in the preparation of many of these guides which have been used widely in John’s university courses as well as by many professional and non-professional botanists.