Norma Eleanor Williams started a landscape architectural firm that specialized in historic preservation. One of her projects was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's house in Cambridge, Mass. (pictured). She was a founding member of the Connecticut Olmsted Heritage Alliance and served as its first president.
Photo: Stephen Kelly

Norma Eleanor Williams of Ridgefield, Conn., passed away March 19, 2014, at the age of 69. Williams was born Dec. 13, 1944, in Manchester, Conn., and grew up in South Windsor. She graduated from the MacDuffie School in Springfield, Mass., and received a B.A. from St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland in 1967. She worked for IBM in New York until 1983 and held technical and management positions in information systems and internal audit.

She left IBM in 1983 to enroll in the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, where she received a master's degree in landscape architecture in 1986. She moved back to Connecticut, and held professional licenses in Connecticut and New York, working for several firms before starting her own practice that specialized in historic preservation. She worked on large-scale restoration and preservation projects at the Weir Farm Historic Site in Wilton, at Greenwood Gardens in Short Hills, New Jersey, and at Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's house in Cambridge, Mass.

Williams was a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects and served as president of the society's Connecticut chapter for two terms. She was a founding member of the Connecticut Olmsted Heritage Alliance, and served as its first president. She served as the first district officer for Connecticut in the Historic American Landscape Survey, and was named to the Governor's Council on Historic Preservation in 2011.

Williams is survived by her husband, Tom Madden; daughter, Margaret McClennan of Framingham, Mass.; two grandsons; brothers, Steven Williams of Carmel, N.Y., and Christopher Williams of Middletown; and sister, Nancy Brown of Guilford.

In keeping with her wishes there will be no memorial service.

Contributions may be made to a food bank or to any organization that helps people who are hungry.