Auburn Football chaplain passes away following drowning incident
Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is investigating a drowning on Lake Martin which occurred Sunday afternoon.
The drowning occurred around 5:45 p.m. on Sunday, December 15, 2024, when 61-year-old Chette L. Williams was attempting to leave his vessel, a 2005 Bennington 2575 RFS pontoon boat, when he fell into the water near a dock at Kowaliga’s Restaurant on Lake Martin just west of the Kowaliga Bridge in Elmore County.
“Williams was recovered at approximately 7:19 p.m. near the same location where he entered the water and was pronounced deceased,” state officials said. Williams’s body has been sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences (ADFS) for an autopsy to be performed.
Williams, who was a former linebacker for the Tigers, served as the Chaplain with the Auburn Football program for the past two decades.
According to his bio on the Auburn Tigers website, Williams is also the Auburn campus director for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the State Director for Urban Ministries for FCA.
The former President of IMPACT Ministries in Spartanburg, S.C. (1995-99), Williams served as Pastor of New Covenant Baptist Church in New Orleans, La. (1993-95) and co-Pastor of New Song Baptist Church in Mobile, Ala. (1991-93). He was licensed as a minister in 1987 and ordained in 1988. He received a bachelor’s degree from Auburn in Adult Education in 1985, and a master’s of divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 1993.
Williams has two daughters, Lauren and Caitlyn, and one son, Chette Jr.
Our condolences remain with his family, his friends, and Auburn Football family.
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