President of J. Paul Getty Trust Receives French Honor : Art: Harold M. Williams is made an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters because of the trust’s efforts to conserve France’s cultural heritage.

Harold M. Williams, president and chief executive of the J. Paul Getty Trust, was honored by the French government this week when he was made an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters.

“Because of his love of French art, which he has shown on numerous occasions, Monsieur Williams is among those Americans with whom France is honored to be friends,” said Jacques Toubon, the French minister of culture, in presenting the award at a ceremony here Thursday.

Williams, 67, who is a member of the board of the Times Mirror Corp., The Times’ parent company, was praised by the French government for turning the Getty Trust, which he has led since 1981, “from a Utopian idea into a reality.”

The trust is a private institution that operates worldwide with seven branches, including the Getty Museum but also the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Research Center for the Arts and the Humanities, the Getty Art History Information program and the Getty Grants program.

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“The trust has willingly contributed in a significant way to the vitality of the arts, conserving our cultural heritage, its study and its distribution,” Toubon said, adding that the trust also has frequently helped French artists and museums with everything from publications to restorations.

And Toubon described the Getty Museum as “certainly the institution on the West Coast of the United States that offers the most remarkable view of the permanence of French art.”

Williams, a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School.