Robin M. Williams, Jr. was secretary and president of the American Sociological Association. His many professional activities included service on the executive committee, Assembly of Behavioral and Social Sciences of the National Research Counci. He is the author or co-author of a number of books including Strangers Next Door: Ethnic Relations in American Communities and American Society: A Sociological Interpretation and was the editor of the Arnold and Caroline Rose Monograph Series of the American Sociological Association.