William Anderson, '79, dreaded his first day in prison. His life had been marked by success. As a running back and kick returner for Bill Walsh's Cardinal, he was part of a golden era of Stanford football that included the 1977 Sun Bowl victory. He followed that with a lucrative two-decade career as an executive in the semiconductor industry.
But in 1996, he ran into a friend at a church fair who was having little luck recruiting volunteers for Prison Fellowship, a Christian outreach organization for inmates, former prisoners and their families. Anderson agreed to help out—and instantly regretted the decision. “I had no draw to prison or to prisoners,” recalls Anderson, 50. “As a young African-American male, the last thing you want to do is voluntarily step into a prison.” But after his first day with inmates, he felt something in him shift. Soon, he came to see all his other successes as preparation for the work God was calling him to do for the incarcerated.
Anderson is now executive director of the Arizona office of Prison Fellowship. Founded in 1976 by Charles W. Colson, the Nixon aide who served seven months in prison on Watergate-related charges, the international nonprofit offers Bible study and life-skills workshops to inmates regardless of gender or reason for incarceration. Anderson has taught workshops for up to 120 inmates at a time on subjects ranging from Christian fundamentals to parenting and job-hunting.
The goal, he says, is to help prisoners reconcile with God, their families and their community, both in and outside of jail. “For some of the men and women, their 'community' for the foreseeable—if not permanent—future, will be prison,” Anderson says. “We help them understand that they can still have an impact on those around them by the way they live.”
Ministry work is in Anderson's blood: his great-grandfather was the founding pastor of Washington Chapel AME Church at Alabama's Tuskegee University. For Anderson, who grew up in Richmond, Calif., church on Sundays was a must. But at Stanford, Sunday morning was for recovering from the previous day's game—and from Saturday night's party. “I definitely strayed,” he says with a rueful chuckle.
Anderson left the semiconductor industry and, after a brief break, accepted the Prison Fellowship job in 2000. He has created a number of new programs, including an annual one-day football camp held at Stanford for Bay Area inmates' children and at-risk youth. More than 200 9- to 13-year-olds came to the camp's second session last August for drills with former Stanford players.
Anderson also is studying for a master's degree in conflict management at Trinity Theological Seminary in Indiana. He plans to pursue a doctorate. He lives with his wife, Marcia, in Chandler, Ariz., and leads a team chapel service for the Cardinal before its game in Arizona each year. He still visits prisons about every six weeks.
Today, Anderson uses his own story of conversion when talking to skeptical would-be volunteers. He understands their trepidation, as well as the epiphany many have when they start doing God's work for those behind bars. “They come to realize that many people in prison are just like them.”
—CORINNE PURTILL, '02
