A "gentle giant" is how Mark Williams’ friends describe the man known as "Big Daddy" at Coles bar and grill on Elmwood Avenue.
The establishment was more than a haunt for Williams. He had spent time there as a bouncer, a patron and best friend of the owner, Mike Shatzel.
"He was like a giant teddy bear, just a big lovable guy that loved everybody," said Shatzel.
"At Coles, he was just a fixture there. Everybody wanted to be around him, and be introduced to him, the happiest guy in the world," Shatzel added.
On April 2, Williams was admitted to Sisters Hospital suffering from complications of Covid-19, according to Shatzel’s wife, Suzanne. In an effort to save Williams’ life, he was placed in a medically induced coma and put on a ventilator, she said.
Two doors away from Williams’ hospital room in the intensive care unit, his mother, Barbara Miles, waged her own fight against the coronavirus. Only five months prior, Williams’ brother Michael had succumbed to the virus in November.
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"There was no one on the planet like Mark Williams," said Suzanne Shatzel. "The world is a sadder place without that man here. It is a tremendous loss to this city and to all of us."
He also leaves behind a daughter, Elizabeth.
"I know he loved spending time with his daughter. She's 19," Mike Shatzel said.
Williams also was godfather to the Shatzels' daughter, Nola.
Suzanne Shatzel set up a GoFundMe page to help defray funeral costs for Williams' family. More than $58,000 had been pledged as of Friday morning.
"His gift was very much about how he made others feel," she said. "He was this larger-than-life person that gave nothing but love to the world.
"He even broke up fights with love. He calmly inserted himself and calmly guided people out. He just had a way of always being kind, always being loving," she said.
Williams was born in 1972 in Buffalo, according to Mike Shatzel. He attended grammar school at Nardin Academy and graduated from Canisius High School in 1990.
Shatzel, who attended Nichols School, said he met Williams at a high school party in 1990 and they hit it off.
"I was pretending I was Christian Laettner, the basketball player, who I was friends with in high school, and we were pretending he (Mark Williams) was my teammate from Duke, and we were trying to impress some young girls. That was like our first time together hanging out," said Shatzel.
"From there, we just became like best friends really quickly," he added.
"I went away to college, but we kept in touch. Then he started working for us at Coles on Elmwood, working security, which he did for probably a good 10 years. Then he went into private security at a local company," Shatzel continued.
Mark Pcionek said Williams remained a fixture at Coles.
"He had a spot at the corner of the bar, far end. Everybody knew him there," said Pcionek.
Pcionek said he first met Williams while they attended Nardin Montessori in the mid-1970s.
"He would sleep over my house up in Hamburg, where I grew up, and my parents would take us out to dinner to Foit's on the Lake or Hoak's, when they used to be there, and my dad would say, 'this is my other son.' People would look at us funny walking in with Mark, and, yeah, he was a part of my family, and he still is," Pcionek said.
Pcionek said he was shocked that Williams died so suddenly.
"I think it's a virus that many are not taking seriously, but all of a sudden you do consider it serious ... when you lose someone close to you like this because of the virus," Pcionek said.
"And I'll tell you this: I did not take it seriously, personally, and Mark got sick and Mark passed, and a few days later I went and got vaccinated, because he left a family behind, a daughter, and I don't want to leave a family behind," Pcionek added.
