Williams High officially opened its doors on September 5, 1951, with an enrollment approaching 1,000 (today, it has a student body approaching 1200, and in the early 1970s surpassed 1700) and a staff of 43 (as of November 2008, the school has a combined certified and classified staff of 124). The first student to arrive at school that day was Roger Cheek, who thus might be compared to Carolina's Hinton James, and be considered Williams's "first student." Jack Lindley was the first student body president.