"When Patrick Soricone talked with me, I said, 'Absolutely not!' because I didn't want to give him any encouragement to take another job," Williams says.

"Patrick had a really tough job and he's done a magnificent job. Like many of us at the center, I encouraged him not to leave us."

However, when it became clear that Soricone was going to accept a job offer from United Way Silicon Valley, Williams changed his mind.

"As a friend, I want him to have a good, long, successful career and be happy. It's one of the reasons I made the decision to step up and serve on an interim basis," Williams says.

"I want to make sure his successful efforts to build the center, to bring in new donors and to expand the programs serving gays and lesbians are continued. It's an important way to honor the contributions of Patrick Soricone."

The executive board of the DeFrank Center offered Williams the interim position on Nov. 12, giving him a two-week overlap with Soricone before he leaves at the end of November.

Williams stresses the interim part of the title.

"I really don't have any interest in being permanent director. Maybe my skill set is right, but you have to want the job and I don't. I'm very happy," Williams says.

"I'm a nonprofit management consultant on a part-time basis and my other role is as a stay-at-home father. My daughter Caroline is in day care two days a week and the rest of the time she's with me and I love that job."

Williams and his domestic partner James Moore, an attorney specializing in intellectual property litigation, adopted their daughter at birth, 2 ¹/2 years ago.

Born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate, Caroline needed surgery at 2 months of age and again at 10 months.

"She's doing fantastic," Williams says. "They said she would need speech therapy, but I've read to her since she was very young and her speech is beyond where it should be. That's one of the benefits of being a stay-at-home parent.

"Jim and I talked about it and said, 'If we can afford to live on one salary, let's try and do it.' It's been well worth it. At the end of the day, your family comes first."

Before Caroline came along and Williams decided to scale back and do consulting, he worked for the Santa Clara County Public Health Department managing all its HIV prevention, counseling and testing programs.

"I'm familiar with all the programs the center is providing to gays and lesbians because I helped to build them," he says. "I care about those programs and I want to see them continue."

Originally from Wisconsin, Williams earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin and his master's in social work at New York University.

Williams and Moore met in New York; after completing their education, the couple moved to Washington, D.C.

There, Williams served as executive director of a women's health care organization in nearby Baltimore.

Williams says he and Moore decided, "we have one more move left. We wanted to start a family and be in a suburban community with urban resources. We researched it, decided on San Jose and we're very happy with San Jose."

They moved to Willow Glen in 2001 and Williams wasted no time getting involved with the community.

He was recently elected vice president of the North Willow Glen Neighborhood Association, he serves on the executive board of the nonprofit Resources for Families and Communities and is on both the Citizen Watchdog Committee for Santa Clara County's Measure B Transportation Improvement Project and the city of San Jose's Project Diversity.

Williams is also the founder of the Silicon Valley LGBT Democratic Club and serves on its executive board.

Describing himself as a life-long Democrat, Williams says he founded the chapter in 2004 because he felt the LGBT community needed "a real grassroots political organization."

Williams will be working with the executive director search committee at the DeFrank, co-chaired by Ed Kolb and Rick Partridge.

"My hope is to have someone by March. Our annual dinner is the first week in April and I hope we can introduce our new executive director at that dinner," Williams says.

"I have a self-interest in keeping the process moving," he adds.

The last time the position was open, it took seven months to fill, Williams points out.

"When Patrick first arrived the building was in chaos, redevelopment was struggling to make the final payments, the center had a bloated budget, staff salaries were very low and there were a lot of problems," Williams says.

"Patrick has cleaned it up. Not only has he moved the community into the center, completed it and cleaned it up, he's repaired a lot of relations with the center's founders. He's brought new donors and new people into the center.

"He's thrown the doors open and welcomed not just the gay community, but also supporters and allies.

"Patrick has made it a terrific position that I feel a lot of local nonprofit executives will want to look at it."

A description of the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center executive director position is posted on www.defrank.org. The application deadline is Dec. 19. For additional information, call 408.293.3040, ext. 103.