Derek Williams, the CBS News cameraman who spent four decades filming Asia's most volatile conflicts and political upheavals, died on July 22 at the age of 79. His family confirmed the death, noting that Williams had been living with Parkinson's disease and was recently diagnosed with cancer.
Williams began his career in 1971 with a three-month trial at the CBS News bureau in Hong Kong. He went on to cover the Vietnam War, the fall of Saigon in 1975, the Thammasat University student massacre in Bangkok in October 1976, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the Iran-Iraq war, the 1986 People Power revolution in the Philippines, and the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing in June 1989. He also reported from Beirut and covered the first Gulf War in 1991.
In June 1989, Williams and CBS News correspondent Richard Roth were detained by Chinese authorities during the Tiananmen Square crackdown. They were eventually released relatively unharmed. The episode was one of many where Williams's composure under pressure proved critical.
Susan Zirinsky, former CBS News president and current president of See It Now Studios, described Williams as "everything — the mate you would want in any war zone." She called him "intuitive" and "a great cameraman," adding that "he saw things coming before they came." Zirinsky also recalled the frequent emails Williams sent to a group of friends, each one "like a visual portrait that he might have shot if covering a story." Her last email from him was dated July 2. "Hard to imagine a world that doesn't have Derek's humor and vision and humanity in it," she said.
Dan Rather, the former CBS News anchor, posted on social media: "I'm deeply saddened to hear of Derek Williams's passing. He was one of the bravest and a great CBS News cameraman. The images he captured beautifully told the story of a dangerous world — from the Middle East to South Asia and beyond. He was also a great man."
A life on the frontlines
Williams was born in New Zealand just after World War II to the Rev. Philip Williams, an Anglican vicar. He trained as a sound technician with the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation in Invercargill and Wellington before moving to Hong Kong. In a 2017 interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Williams recalled his early doubts about the profession: "I remember that night going back to the hotel and I couldn't sleep, I was feeling sort of ill, and I felt, is this right? Is this how I want to spend the rest of my life, almost being a vulture?" A German cameraman told him, "You'll get used to it. You'll get a rhino-skin in this job."
Williams married his Vietnamese girlfriend in Saigon as the city's fall became imminent. He told the ABC that he used poker winnings to bribe a registry office to open on a Sunday for the wedding, then convinced New Zealand Embassy staff — who were scrambling to evacuate — to issue his new wife a passport the next day.
After retiring from CBS in 1996, Williams co-founded AsiaWorks, a Bangkok-based news organization. He remained in Asia until his health declined, then returned to New Zealand to be closer to family. He had been living in California with his wife before that.
Allen Pizzey, a former CBS News foreign correspondent, recalled working with Williams in Beirut in 1982. "Chaos the order of the day," Pizzey said. "A CBS newbie nobody, who knew next to nothing about TV, was foisted on Derek Williams. With patience and his ever-present humour, Derek tutored me how to go about making air, and more important, stay safe while doing it." Pizzey added that Williams "was as fine a man, mentor and friend as he was a cameraman. That's another way of saying the best."
Denis Gray, a former longtime Bangkok bureau chief for The Associated Press, said: "I knew Derek since the Vietnam War and was with him on other assignments. Two things stand out in my memory – he never seemed to lose his cool or his sense of humor and he never bragged about his many exploits in the field. It was just his job."
Keith Kay, a former cameraman and producer in Vietnam, described Williams as "a joy and privilege to work or play with." Marc Laban, who visited Williams in his final month, called him "one of the founding partners of AsiaWorks" and noted that "Derek covered some of the defining events of the late 20th century, and did so with a courage and quiet decency that set him apart."
Williams's death prompted an outpouring of grief among veteran journalists' groups such as the Vietnam Old Hacks and the William Boot Society, as well as among younger journalists he had mentored. His distinctive, sonorous New Zealand accent and his dry humor were recalled by many. As Zirinsky put it, "I miss the emails already."
