It could have ended there. Williams, 67, is in the waning years of a long teaching career. The product of segregated schooling in rural Virginia, he earned a doctorate in education. Over the years he has taught, worked as a vice principal and overseen test improvement in Washington. In the early 1980s, he was dean of Sojourner-Douglass College in Baltimore.
Williams has long looked for ways to reach children beyond the four walls of a classroom. That's why he founded Academic Resources Unlimited, a nonprofit group that produces instructional guides, and why he has published previous books.
He kept thinking about word searches on his morning commute from his home in Clinton. "One day I got to school," he told Munshi, "and I thought, 'This is what I'm going to do.' " He was going to produce what came to be, after many nights of reading and research, the Obama-themed book.
It contains more than two dozen word searches. It devotes separate puzzles to Obama's wife, Michelle, and their two children as well as the new president's late mother and grandparents. The rest focus on aspects of Obama's personality and character.
For each, the format is the same: puzzle on one page, word chart on another, solution at the back of the book. As an example, the puzzle he calls "Barack Obama: The Kind, Friendly Man" includes 15 adjectives that Williams ascribes to him. The words range from amicable to vivacious.
Williams has spent a "couple thousand" dollars to publish 1,300 copies. So far, he says he has sold about 300, mostly through the Web site of his nonprofit group ( www.academicresourcesunlimited.org), which will receive any profits. It's also available in local bookstores in Prince George's County and at Amazon.com. It lists for $12.95.
After Tuesday's inauguration he plans to step up marketing, though, to avoid any apparent conflict of interest, he has not used it in his classes.
His editor listened as Williams explained how, to him, the book echoes Obama's own call for families to learn together.
"I hear him saying often, 'Parents, you have a big responsibility. You need to work with your children. You need to turn your television off and sit and work with the kids.' This is just one piece of material that will help or support what he believes."
At the same time, Williams thinks Obama's popularity should be able to draw in kids who might be inclined to check out on school.
"There's not one child I've spoken to who does not like Barack Obama. Not one. I say to them, 'If you like him, why don't you emulate him? You run around speaking in monosyllables, nobody's understanding you. This man is eloquent, he's articulate. He's a good role model for you.' "
"It's a wonderful book, indeed," Munshi replied in a lilt that reflects his Indian roots.
"I like words, Fahim. Like you." But if his teachers had not seen potential in him at an early age, Williams went on, he would not be sitting there in Beltsville.
Munshi agreed. "It's like that saying: 'They say parents give roots to children, but teachers give them wings.' "
A grin spread across Williams' face. "I like that. Do that again!"
Munshi repeated the saying.
And then it was time for Williams to pull his Prius around to the loading dock. With a fresh load of books, he would continue sharing his enthusiasm for words, and for Obama.
