Alumni Dean King ‘81 and Sam Williamson ‘80 trace their friendship back to the Upper School classrooms and athletic fields at StC, where they forged a strong bond. The two remained close, with Sam following Dean to the University of North Carolina in his freshman year, where they both joined the same fraternity. Years later, the two Saints have teamed up to produce the Netflix documentary, “Greed and Gold: The Hunt for Fenn’s Treasure.” 

The three-episode series premiered on March 27 and tells the story of a decade-long treasure hunt. Valued at $3 million, the treasure inspired countless people to dedicate their lives to the search by solving nine mysterious clues hidden in a poem. Millionaire Forrest Fenn reportedly buried the treasure in 2010. 

The Saints duo is now reunited as filmmakers, but they pursued very different paths following their years together in Chapel Hill. King became a successful writer, and Williamson built a 35-year career as an executive at IBM. In 2020, when King learned that Williamson was retiring, he reached out to see if his old friend would be up for a new adventure with Gum Street Productions, a documentary incubator he had started with fellow author James Campbell on a fascinating story he’d just learned of.

King remembers reading a 2020 article about the search for Fenn’s treasure and knowing the story would be perfect for their first project. “I emailed everyone about this, and we all said, ‘This is unbelievable. Let’s jump on it,’” said King.

Williamson seized the chance. “I was looking for something different to do. I love creative stuff, and even in my career at IBM, there were so many writing, research and communications aspects. It was about solving problems and building relationships, which is a skill that translated directly into this project,” he said. 

The team dove into research mode and began tracking down talent and signing them up for the show, and King knew that Williamson’s background would be a perfect fit for the team at this stage. King told his old friend, “You’re our intern/CEO. We’ll teach you the storytelling business, and then you can Gum Street, because who better to run it than a former IBM executive, right?”

For approximately a year, the team looked for anything and everything to do with the search. “I lived and breathed it, man! [laughs] That’s all I did,” said Williamson.”I found every article, interview, and video I could on this to track people down. By whatever means possible.”

The series dives deep into the stories of the people involved in the hunt and how the search captured the imaginations of so many. “People became obsessed with finding this treasure,” said King. “It had become part of their lives,” said King. Williamson was struck by how profoundly the search had reorganized the lives of so many. “There was this huge culture around this chase,” said Williamson. “Millions of people were involved and had built whole communities around it.” 

King looks back at his time at StC as an essential foundation for his love of writing and learning about the world. “St. Christopher’s certainly nurtured my love of literature,” King said. “From Liston Rudd in the Upper School to Ron Smith, who was just so passionate about literature. We read ‘The World According to Garp’ and other modern books you wouldn’t typically read in high school,” he said. “Mr. Squires taught me how to be concise. Rather than write 10 pages, he’d wanted us to learn how to write one good page. That lesson really stuck with me.”

Williamson appreciates the chance to work with his old friend again. What started as a friendship at StC in Richmond has taken the two nationwide as celebrated storytellers. “We always stayed very close, you know. I always admired Dean’s work, and this experience has just been phenomenal,” said Williamson.