Valerie Cassity-Special to the Sun

Everyone donned their Hawaiian attire last Friday, March 9, at Camp Erwin Owen as the staff and volunteers at the facility held a farewell luau for their retiring Director Rob Williams. The event boasted an impressive potluck luncheon and had an endless parade of people coming to say farewell to a man who truly made a difference at the young men's honor ranch.

At the celebration, Kern County Deputy Chief Probation Officer Terry Fleming presented Williams with a retirement badge and told the crowd that Williams, “Has been a shining star up here and a great advocate for the boys. He will be very missed by the department.”

Director Rob Williams is decked out in appropraite Hawaiian attire for his retirement luau on March 9 at Camp Erwin Owen in Kernville.

Coworkers Ron Rojas and Jim O'Hara then donned grass skirts and coconut bras and danced the hula to the crowd's amused applause, and then a PowerPoint presentation of a pictorial history of Williams's time at Camp Owen was shown. The Camp's Assistant Director Matt Fontaine, who Williams hopes will be promoted to his position, gave a brief speech about Williams's accomplishments at the camp. “Rob has raised the level; changed the culture to give the boys a positive focus and it shows,” he said.

Jeanette Rogers, Kern County Woman of the Year, spoke of her friend Williams and everything he has accomplished at the Camp. “What's special about Rob is that in dealing with the boys, he always sees their potential and not their past,” she said.

Williams began his career at Camp Erwin Owen in 1995 as an Institution Supervisor before being promoted to Assistant Institution Director in 1997, and then promoted again to Probation Division Director in 2000. He has been an advocate for the camp since he began his tenure at the facility, and will continue to return to check on its progress. “The most meaningful thing is interaction with the boys. They are mostly city kids, and we try to give them a different perspective on life and the world in general,” said Williams.

Williams grew up in Los Altos, California and attended Cal Poly University at San Luis Obisbo, where he majored in Social Sciences with an emphasis in Corrections. When he graduated, Williams applied his degree immediately by going to work for the San Luis Obisbo County Probation Department, where he worked for 20 years. He came to Camp Owen because it was a one-of-a-kind program which focused on rehabilitating troubled youth in a different way than most juvenile detention facilities, and said that his time at Camp Owen has been “The highlight of my career.”

Indeed, speaking with Williams and his coworkers, his love for the program is an obvious fact. He has operated at the camp under the philosophy that if you treat the boys with respect, expect them to treat you with respect, educate them, and give them basic work skills, a foundation for a life of success has been established. Williams likes the fact that the camp is a completely non-secure honor program, so the young men are there of their own volition. “I don't think people really understand what a jewel this is right here in the Valley. Quietly, this camp has been a success for almost 70 years,” he said.

Williams has become somewhat famous in California's Probation Departments for his pig stories, since the ag farm is one of his favorite programs at Camp Owen, and the pigs in particular. He said his most memorable moment at the Camp, “although there were many,” was while he was attending a birth, and the staff member acting as midwife to the birthing sow was unable to turn the piglet stuck in the birth canal to the right angle so that the litter could be born because his hand and arm were too large. “I will never forget this; a skinny, lanky young man said ‘Sir, if it's allowed, I'd like to try,' and we talked him through it and he saved the pig's life.”

In his retirement, Williams plans to stay very busy with his new-found free time. He is getting married on April 13 to local woman Allene Zanger, who he met at the Oddfellows Hall at a Kern Valley Collaborative Awards Dinner, after which they will be moving across country to Arlington, VA, where Zanger has a position at the national Peace Corps office until January of 2009. While his bride is hard at work saving the world, Williams plans to return to school for his Masters Degree in either Liberal Arts or Public Administration. As both Williams and Zanger are native Californians, they plan to eventually return to their home state.

Williams was touched and humbled by the outpouring of love and appreciation showed to him at the luncheon in his honor, and said he will miss the Kern Valley and everyone here who has made his life special. He ended the festivities by quoting Albert Einstein, “If I have seemed bigger than others it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.”