GENEVA – When Loy Williams met Martin Luther King Jr. in the fall of 1964, he remembered a man who was short in stature and soft-spoken. Although King was relatively quiet, “what he said carried a lot of power,” Williams said.

“To this day, he’s the most charismatic person I’ve ever met,” he said.

On Monday, the United States will recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day. King was born in January 1929, and he was assassinated in 1968. Williams, a Geneva resident, met King while pursuing his master’s degree at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.