With all the hype surrounding storied University prof. Ralph Williams, I considered myself fortunate in having secured a spot in one of his courses during the winter 2008 semester, his last at the University. While I’d heard quite a bit about his larger-than-life personality, I entered the class on the first day prepared to make my own observations about this ‘legendary’ professor.

After finding a seat in the Natural Science auditorium on the first day of class, I — and everyone else in the room — waited for Prof. Williams to arrive. And I waited. And waited. And waited.

Just as I was about to give up hope of ever experiencing this legend for myself, a door at the top of the steps flew open and Prof. Williams bound into the room, a wholly sincere smile stretched across his face.

I followed in perplexed amazement as he took his time, despite the late entrance, to walk up and down each set of stairs looking for familiar faces among the students, stopping to chat or shake hands when he found one.

Most professors would never do this. Most professors of large classes walk in, set up a PowerPoint, teach for their allotted time and only interact with students during pre-arranged office hours. Most professors wouldn’t recognize former students. Most professors probably wouldn’t have repeat students. Ralph Williams was not like most professors.

And though the scene that first day was highly unordinary from any class I'd had before, what got my attention were Williams’ hands.

Despite being an exceptionally tall man with long limbs, his hands caught me off guard. Not only were they fairly large in proportion to his already considerable height, but he used them more than anyone I’d ever seen before.

Every movement he made, every word he spoke and every emotion he felt was conveyed in those hands.

At about the three-week marker, Williams again made his way through the visages of his students when he stopped in front of me, grinned and put out his hand to shake mine. Though I hesitated half a second too long out of sheer astonishment, I recovered and offered my hand in return.

Recently, I met with Williams to chat about what he’s been up to since his retirement from teaching last spring. He recognized me immediately, took my tiny-in-comparison hand with both of his and we got to talking.

After winning the first-ever Golden Apple Laureate Lifetime Achievement Award last April, which Williams says currently resides in a room in his home full of memorabilia that’s “very, very important to (him),” he’s kept himself busy with various travel and learning opportunities.

“It’s been a wonderfully busy time,” Williams said. “It’s been rather like the experience you’ve had when you take a flat stone and try to skip it on the surface of the water.”

Williams spent this summer in Northern Italy, New York and London engaged in Shakespearean stage productions, scholarly lectures and Common Era literature. He also managed to act in the film “Trivial Pursuits,” which he referred to as a “revelation.”

“I had no idea the size of the project,” he said. “I came to admire hugely the camera people, the sound people, the makeup people who had to make me look 20 years younger at one point, which is a small miracle.”

When he’d finished joking about his age and I asked the inevitable question, “do you plan to return to teaching,” a noticeable change took over Williams’ countenance.

Despite his many years as a scholar, professor and expert in various fields, Williams has always remained, in his mind, a student.

Wringing his hands into a maze of knuckles, Williams described the “sort of silent spot” growing with the absence of students’ voices and his nostalgia for the excitement of learning things alongside his students.

“I love it and miss very much the freshness of the views of my students as they look at things with some experience of the world, but with the urgency at that moment to explore, extend and refresh the world with their own ideas,” he said.

Whether or not he returns to the classroom, Williams promised to always maintain a base in Ann Arbor and strong ties to the University. The city and its offerings, he believes, have already and will continue to make him into a “much bigger and better man.”

“I love Ann Arbor and the University, just head over heels tumbling the best University in the world, with the best students,” he said with a grin. “I can’t imagine cutting myself free entirely from that.”

He continued, explaining his desire to travel abroad again in the near future. “I think I’d be the luckiest man that ever was,” he said of the combination of his experiences around the world as well those in Ann Arbor.

“I’m going to give it a run and don’t plan to have much of me left over when it’s ‘good night,’ ” he added with a flourish of his hands.