Williams died July 25 in Santa Fe, N.M., from complications related to AIDS. He was 45.

Williams moved to New Orleans and started acting and designing stage sets shortly after leaving his home state of Pennsylvania. He graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a major in film.

“He was a great big, strapping kid from Pennsylvania, just laughing all the time,” said David Cuthbert, who met Williams when both started working at the Bayou Plaza Hotel’s dinner theater.

Ricky Graham, a playwright and fellow actor who knew Williams since their time together on the play “Women Behind Bars” in 1991, said they had a mutual interest in live theater and dead movie stars.

“Ron was by far the most optimistic and ‘up’ person I have ever known, almost to the point of nausea, I often pointed out, and he cheerfully concurred,” he said.

“But it was always to him that I went when I needed sensible advice and a spiritual lift,” Graham added.

Williams’ disposition made him an ideal match for light-hearted roles, and he established his reputation as Jeffrey in the play of the same name and Dash Daryl, in “Daryl’s Perils.” He later helped to found the True Brew Theatre at 200 Julia St., as well as the first dog-centered Mardi Gras Krewe of Barkus, for which his chow-retriever mix Tad served as king for two years in a row.

Williams also established a reputation for integrity when he had the opportunity to act in a play at Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre, the nation’s oldest community theater. Even though none of the actors in the play would be paid, the company was willing to pay him for his talents.

He declined the offer.

“He said, ‘I wouldn’t feel right being paid when my fellow artists aren’t,” Cuthbert said. “He was a very principled person.”

Williams’ talent with a pen or brush gave him another creative outlet, and he painted colorful indoor and outdoor murals, illustrations and lettering for restaurants and other businesses around New Orleans. Cuthbert said there were few areas of the city that weren’t touched by his brush.

“He did work everywhere, on everything,” he said. “He once told me, ‘I walk around and I feel like this whole city is my canvas.’”

The next phase of Williams’ life came about 10 years ago, when he shifted his focus from acting to cartooning. His first political cartoons appeared in Impact, a weekly gay newspaper in New Orleans that closed in 2002, and other Window Media newspapers, including Southern Voice, the Houston Voice and the Washington Blade.

“Ron brought color and a biting wit to the op-ed pages of our newspapers,” said Chris Crain, editorial director for Window Media. “His work is sorely missed.”

Williams’ cartoons ranged from the humorous to those with a cutting edge, poking fun at President Bush or drug abusing “circuit queens.”

Although he continued to illustrate and paint, Cuthbert said Williams was satisfied the most with his new career.

“I talked to him about it, and he said, ‘I spent years trying to find my voice,’ and finally this feels right. This is it,’” Cuthbert said.

Williams moved to Santa Fe, N.M. three years ago when his health deteriorated due to complications from AIDS. He drew cartoons for the Reporter and remained active in the community until his health declined.

Survivors include his mother, Ellen Williams Evans, and his stepfather, Sherwood J. Evans, both of Bangor, Pa.; his brother, Richard of Cincinnati, Ohio; his stepbrother, John Jr. of Hewitt, N.J.; his sister, Connie Treskot of Bethlehem; and several nieces and nephews.

Donations may be made to Aid & Comfort, P.O. Box 1981, Santa Fe, N.M. 87504.