David B. Williams is a freelance writer in Seattle. Originally raised in Seattle, he went to college in Colorado where he initially studied physics but switched to geology. He received a Bachelor of Arts in geology from Colorado College and worked as a park ranger at Arches National Park in Utah. Williams returned to Seattle to be a writer of natural history books and occasional urban geology tour guide. He was employed at Seattle's Burke Museum as of 2014. He writes a biweekly newsletter, Street Smart Naturalist: Notes on People, Place, and the PNW. One local bookseller wrote, "When it comes to books about Seattle and its surroundings, there's one must-read writer as far as I'm concerned, and that's David B. Williams."
Williams' interest in urban geology was sparked by the use of stone in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel.