E. Stewart Williams completed his undergraduate studies at Cornell University in 1932 and was elected to the Sphinx Head Society. Williams then taught at Columbia University from 1934 to 1938. In 1938 Williams traveled through northern Europe and he met a Swedish woman on the trip, who he would marry two years later after a prolonged separation due to the war. Upon returning he worked in Raymond Loewy's office. In Loewy's office Williams' responsibilities included projects for the 1939 New York World's Fair, and the Lord and Taylor department store in Manhasset, Long Island in 1941, one of the first large suburban branches of a department store to be built.