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MTS Dedicates Station in Honor of Board Chair Emeritus

The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) honored Board Chair Emeritus Leon Williams by dedicating the San Diego State University (SDSU) Trolley Station in his honor. More than 100 friends, family members, and elected officials attended the rededication ceremony.

Williams became the first African-American member of the San Diego City Council in 1969 and the first African-American on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors in 1982, retiring in 1994. He joined the Metropolitan Transit Development Board, predecessor to the MTS, at its founding in 1976, becoming MTS vice chair in 1985 and chair from 1994 until his retirement from the board in 2006. At that time, the board gave him the title of chair emeritus. APTA honored him as its Outstanding Transit Board Member in 2004.

“It is only fitting that we recognize Leon with the dedication of SDSU Station. Without Leon, the trolley may never have made it to campus. Leon insisted on an alignment that came to the heart of campus. And it has been a great success from the very first day,” said MTS Board Chair Harry Mathis.

San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts, also vice chair of the MTS board, described the specifics of the SDSU station, calling it “essentially a 30-story building that is lying on its side, midway along a 4,000-foot-long tunnel which at its deepest point is 60 feet underground. That’s quite a monument and it is a fitting one for a man who has helped bring monumental change to public transit and the greater San Diego community.”

After facilities staff unveiled the plaque, installed outside the doorway into the transit center’s mezzanine level, Williams said: “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It was a pleasure to serve. It was hard. It was fun. And it was worth it.”

 

Leon Williams, third from left, and his wife Margaret, fourth from right, pose in front of the plaque honoring him at the SDSU Transit Center. From left are Anthony Young, City of San Diego Council president; San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts; Williams; MTS Board Chair Harry Mathis; Margaret Williams; Mary Mathis; Paul Jablonski, MTS chief executive officer; and Jerry Rindone, former MTS vice chair.

 


 

 

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