Rick Williams was on active duty in the army fromJuly 1969 to February 1971, including 13 monthsat the 3rd Surgical Army Hospital (MASH) in BinhThuy, Vietnam, serving as a medical corpsman inthe intensive care unit; as a physician assistant (PA)employed by the Veterans Medical Center in NewOrleans under the psychiatry service; and as a lawyerand judge with the Board of Veterans Appeals inWashington, D.C. In the latter position, he authoredover a thousand appellate decisions.Williams also studied art at the Corcoran School of Art(nights) in Washington, D.C. Seven of his paintingsare part of the permanent collection of the NationalVeterans Art Museum (formerly National Vietnam ArtMuseum) in Chicago, Illinois. His portraits of veteranswounded or killed in action are part of the permanentcollections of the VA Regional Offices in New York Cityand Buffalo, New York. Rick's art exhibits "InfinitelyComplex", which had mental illness as theme; and"Ravages of Addiction" held at Casa de Arte in Buffalo,New York in 2012 and 2016, were well reviewed byart critics from Artvoice, The Public, and the BuffaloNews.

Williams completed the University of Iowa's SummerCreative Writers' Workshop in May-June 2019.He resides in Bethesda, Maryland, and Cuernavaca,Morelos, Mexico.