It breaks our hearts to let you know that Ralph Edwin Williams III, also known as Ted, sadly passed on Jan. 1, 2015 at 11:11 a.m. Ted peacefully passed in his own home in Gloucester, Va., overlooking the still calming water next to his beautiful and loving wife, Karen.

Ted was diagnosed with late stages of a rare form of cancer in November known as Cholangiocarcinoma and it rapidly progressed and sadly took his life. Ted was blessed with his final weeks surrounded by friends and family from all over the country who were able to be by his side to play guitar and sing, tell stories, laugh about good times, hold his hand and let him know the love and admiration that we had for him.

Ted was known by his friends and family as first and foremost an engineer, a loyal Republican, a caring and giving individual, a man of strong and deep-rooted faith, a sailor, a handyman, someone you could call that could answer any question you had or fix any object or task you threw at him, a man that could build his wife a boat for their anniversary and compose and sing a beautiful song to his daughter on her wedding day. Needless to say, Ted was a very special man that touched many hearts and lives throughout his time here on Earth.

Ted was born on Sept. 8, 1945 in Bryn Mawr, Pa. As a child of military parents, Ralph and Louise, Ted grew up traveling with his brothers, Cliff and Bruce, living in many exotic and beautiful locations from Newport, R.I., to Guam and Hawaii. He spent his high school days between Northern Virginia and Hawaii and graduated in 1963 from Iolani in Honolulu where he moved on to study naval architecture in Boston at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

After graduation Ted settled in Northern Virginia, where he found the girl of his dreams, Karen. They married in July of 1978 and raised two children in Northern Virginia, Doug and Juliana. After Doug and Juliana graduated high school, Ted and Karen moved to their dream home on the water in Gloucester in 2004 and were able to spend 10 wonderful years sailing, activities at the yacht club, fishing and crabbing on the pier, nights under the stars, watching orange and pink glowing sunrises, and were able to spend wonderful and precious time with friends and family on the Piankatank River.

In honor of this wonderful and beautiful man, Ted’s service will be held in Gloucester at the Ware Episcopal Church at 11 a.m. on Jan. 31, 2015.

To all who were blessed to know and love him, he would want you to know he felt blessed and honored to have known you as well.

In Ted’s memory, contributions may be given to Ware Episcopal Church, P.O. Box 616, Gloucester, Va. 23061 or American Cancer Society, for the Bile Duct Research, cancer.org/donate.

Arrangements by Hogg Funeral Home and Crematory, Gloucester Point.