53
Family Fund (“Ambassadors of Song”) was
established at SPS in 2011 by Mr. Willis’s
son, Christopher H. Willis ’77. The fund is
used to support international trips made
by the St. Paul’s Choir.
Mr. Willis earned his B.A. in anthropol-
ogy from Yale in 1949. From 1950 to 1952,
he served in the 301st Radio Broadcasting
and Leaflet (RB&L) Group of the U.S. Army,
a New York City reserve unit called into
active duty and sent to Fort Riley, Kan.,
for training. Mr. Willis was then sent to
Europe to serve with the 6th Army Group’s
Psychological Warfare Unit in Heidelberg,
Germany, under the U.S. high commis-
sioner, during the partitioning of war
countries between the Allied and Soviet
forces. In 1953, Mr. Willis and Mr. Gates
Davison, a friend whom he met in the
Army, were invited by Gates’s father, F.
Trubee Davison (a former president of
the American Museum of Natural History),
to lead a scientific expedition to Mada-
gascar for the museum after the elder Mr.
Davison was too ill to travel. Mr. Willis
never forgot about this trip and would
retell this great adventure often through-
out his life.
Two years after the trip, in 1955, Mr.
Willis married Pauline Sabin Smith in
Washington, D.C. The couple raised
three children.
In his professional life, Mr. Willis became
an international leader in the executive
search industry. He was a founding part-
ner with Ian Baldwin ’29 of Devine, Bald-
win & Willis in New York City in 1965 and
in 1970 went on to establish William Willis
Worldwide, an executive search company
with offices in New York and Greenwich,
where he worked until his retirement
in 2004. Mr. Willis was also the founding
chairman of the World Search Group, a
strategic alliance of 30 independent search
firms in the Americas, the Middle East,
Africa, and Asia Pacific. Prior to entering
the executive search field, Mr. Willis had
worked for the industrial textile division
of Owens-Corning Fiberglas and for Heidel-
berg Eastern, Inc., American distributors
of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, the
world’s largest manufacturers of offset
and book printing machinery.
In 1987, Mr. Willis traveled as a citizen
ambassador to the People’s Republic of
China for the People to People Interna-
tional Delegation on Grain Processing.
Four years later, Connecticut Governor
Lowell P. Weicker appointed him to the
Commission on Compensation of Elected
Officials. He was national treasurer and
a director of Girls, Inc. (formerly Girls
Clubs of America) for 18 years, and also
served on the human resources commit-
tee of the YMCA of Greater New York. He
was also devoted to the Capital Campaign
for Yale, the Greenwich Health Associa-
tion, and the Greenwich Hospital Assoc-
iation. From 1982 to 1987, he served as
the form agent for the Form of 1945. He
was a communicant of St. Barnabas Church
of Greenwich for 50 years and had been a
member of its vestry and choir.
A former governor of the Field Club of
Greenwich, in 1979 Mr. Willis founded the
club’s Willis Lecture Series, which endures
today. In 2010, he was granted a rare hon-
orary membership to the club for his many
contributions over the years. An active
sportsman, he enjoyed tennis, squash,
golf, and sailing with his family off the
coast of Mt. Desert Island in Maine. Mr.
Willis was a former governor of both the
Harbor Club and the Seal Harbor Yacht
Club of Seal Harbor, Maine. He was also
a longtime member of the Racquet and
Tennis Club in New York.
Mr. Willis was especially admired for
his integrity, loyalty, dry wit, and wonder-
ful sense of humor. He loved to tell stories
of his global travels and, particularly, tales
of amusing mishaps in foreign situations.
He had a passion and enthusiasm for life,
which he shared with everyone.
Mr. Willis is survived by his wife,
Pauline; his daughter, Wendell Willis
Livingston, and her husband, Tom; his
son, Christopher H. Willis ’77 and his
wife, Cindy; his son, Gregory T. Willis
and his wife, Lois; seven grandchildren,
including Caroline K. Willis ’14 and George
H. Willis ’17. He was predeceased by his
sister, Elizabeth Willis Reid, and his brother,
L. Clayton Willis ’51.
Mr. Boswell attended Hobart College
in Geneva, N.Y., graduating in 1943. He
served two tours of duty with the U.S.
Air Force, first from 1944 to 1946 and
later from 1951 to 1953.
Mr. Boswell spent his career in invest-
ments and eventually retired from Getty
Oil Company. Upon his retirement, he wrote
to the School, “Am trying to become a great
cook and/or photographer.” He thoroughly
enjoyed sports car racing as well.
Mr. Boswell was a board member and
volunteer worker for North East Area
Development (NEAD) of Rochester. He
also served on a committee commissioned
by the United Way and the City of Roches-
ter that reported on the effectiveness of
human services.
Mr. Boswell was predeceased by his
wife, Una, and son, James T. Boswell ’71.
He is survived by his son, Bill; his grand-
children, Patrick, Martha, and Nathan;
and his brother, Charles P. Boswell ’44.
1945
William H. Willis Jr.
a longtime resi-
dent of Greenwich,
Conn., died at his
home on May 11,
2014. He was 86.
Born in Harris-
burg, Pa., on
December 19,
1927, he was the
son of William H.
Willis and Elizabeth Keferstein Willis. Mr.
Willis attended The Landon School for
Boys in Washington, D.C., before entering
St. Paul’s School as a Fifth Former in 1943.
He played baseball, hockey, squash, and
tennis with Delphian, rowed for Shattuck,
and was a member of the drama club.
Music and Choir played an especially
important role throughout Mr. Willis’s
life, starting at St. Paul’s School. He en-
joyed playing the piano and the organ.
Channing Lefebvre, the legendary Choir
and Glee Club director at SPS, became a
lifelong friend to Mr. Willis and encour-
aged his participation with the Yale Choir
and Yale’s Alumni Choir. Mr. Willis also
sang in other prestigious locales through-
out the world. The William H. Willis Jr. ’45
