eventually donated his personal collection and entire workshop to the North Carolina Museum of History. On June 22, 1971, the museum held an opening ceremony of the David Marshall Williams exhibit at the museum, where it remains on permanent display. The display includes the entire building of the Williams workshop. All contents remain in the same location where Williams left them. In 1972, David Marshall Williams was admitted to Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina. His wife described his condition as being unable to recognize his own family. Dorothea Dix Hospital is a psychiatric hospital with short-term and long-term care for patients with a variety of mental disorders, both psychological and physical. Williams remained at the hospital until his death on January 8, 1975. His death certificate lists the primary cause of his death as cardiorespiratory arrest with contributing factors of bronchial pneumonia and organic brain syndrome. Organic brain syndrome (OBS) is decreased mental function owing to a medical disease other than a psychiatric illness. Examples are stroke, Alzheimer's disease, liver failure, long-term alcohol abuse, and withdrawal from alcohol, amongst many others. Williams is buried in the cemetery of the Old Bluff Presbyterian Church near Wade, North Carolina. Legacy While the fictional legend of “Carbine Williams” has garnered Williams more attention over the years, his design, redesign, and development of firearms that used the high-pressure gas in or near the breech to operate their semi-automatic action have remained a significant contribution used in the design and development of new firearms and as a starting point for other inventors to come up with new ideas. The U.S. patent for the highly successful Benelli Shotgun () references Williams's patent for his “Inertia Operated Bolt Lock” . The Weatherby Model SA-08 and SA-459 semi-automatic shotgun lines manufactured for Weatherby by Armsan in Istanbul, Turkey, use an external gas piston housing and short-stroke gas piston that impacts an operating rod to cycle the semi-automatic action. Armsan manufactures and markets in Europe its own line of semi-automatic shotguns using this design. See also Carbine Williams (Jimmy Stewart film, 1952) References Further reading Lucian Cary, "Big Trouble and A Big Idea," True, March 1951. John Kobler, "The Story of 'Carbine' Williams," Colliers''', 3 March 1951. H.T. Peoples, "The Most Unforgettable Character I Ever Met", Reader's Digest, March 1951. William B. Edwards, “The Impossible Shotgun of Carbine Williams”, Guns Magazine, Oct 1956. Ross E. Beard, Jr.