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WILLIAM E. WILLIS EXCELLENCE RECOGNIZED by Martha Woodward

n a 1996 letter to the president of Marshall University, Bill Willis wrote, "Excellence will be recognized and rewarded wherever it is I located." A perfect summary statement for the life and career of this extraordinary man. "It is excellence Born in a little house on Sycamore Street in Huntington, including hard work West Virginia to parents whose that will count." education ended in the eighth grade, Bill progressed through Emmons Elementary, Enslow Junior High and Huntington East High Schools as a bright student but without much indication of the accomplishments ahead. He recalls that if you had a bat and ball and a bicycle you were set. He played with his friends and listened to Lowell Thomas and H. V. Kaltenborn on the radio in the evenings in the house on the 2700 block of Fourth Avenue his father purchased for less than $5,000, payable over thirty years. He collected stamps, a hobby which prompted him to learn about their places of origin and what went on in those locations. The most important activity in his life was the Boy Scouts, which met every Monday evening. Dedicated leaders taught the scouts, took them camping and guided them toward earning merit badges. The pursuit of one of those merit badges led to an interest in bird watching, an activity Bill continues to enjoy today. He heard of "birding walks" in Ritter Park and joined those in addition to his book studies in order to learn enough to pass the merit badge examination administered by Dr. N. Bayard Green, a Marshall University biology professor fondly remembered by many. Willis says, "You had to convince him you knew enough to be awarded the badge." He earned PROFILES IN PROMINENCE PROFILES IN PROMINENCE 143 the badge but kept learning about birds, becoming active as an adult in Store on 2Qlh Street, the business his grandfather had established and a nature preserve and buying a getaway cottage in a priine bird watching his father carried on, and lived at the same standard of those around spot in New Jersey. him. "You know, you don't feel poor unless there's somebody around Huntington can perhaps credit Bill and his fellow Scouts with rich and you've got something to compare it with. And in those days protecting the city in the early World War II days as well. They practiced without television you didn't see how other people were living. I am recognizing different airplanes by their silhouettes in order to be ready sure that in some other parts of the country people were living better to assist the Huntington Civil Defense headquartered in the basement than they were in West Virginia during the Depression, but you weren't of the downtown library. From there the HCD watched the skies. Bill aware of it. The only thing you ever saw of the outside world were dryly observes that nobody gave much thought to the fact that movies or movie stars and they were glamorous and rich and all of Huntington might be rather low on Hitler's target list if he ever got that but that was a little niche of a world and it didn't make much this far with his planes. difference. So in a sense everybody was equally poor but nobody Without a doubt the greatest adventure of his youth was a 12- complained about it." minute sightseeing flight over Huntington. A local gas station promotion At 17, Bill was ready to graduate from the new Huntington East offered a coupon for a plane ride with a fill-up and 50 cents. His dad High School. All the boys knew that when they reached 18 they would and a neighbor's father got the coupons and the boys had to come up sign up for the draft or enlist directly in one of the services. A program with the 50 cents, a princely sum for a thirteen-year-old in the 1930's. which permitted students who scored well on a test to enlist in the Somehow they got the money together and set off on their bicycles Army before reaching draft age and be sent to a university to study the across the Sixth Street Bridge to the airport in Chesapeake, Ohio. Bill vital subjects of medicine, engineering or languages until after their remembers an old Ford Tri-Motor with "yellowing sort of windows 18th birthday directed the next period of Bill's life. He took the test, and springs coming up through the seats." But they got their exciting passed, was sworn into the Army and left Huntington two days after 12-minute ride over Huntington. Now he puzzles, "You know, I don't his May 1944 graduation for Indiana University in Bloomington. There know quite how my mother ever allowed me to do that." he joined approximately forty others from around the country to study He recalls a January 1937 drive with the family to San Antonio, mathematics and sciences for two semesters. When asked what his Texas, where a cousin was hospitalized with tuberculosis. He speaks family thought about this he replied,"This was expected." People's of "bad roads until Texas" where there was noticeable improvement. lives were disrupted by the war and everyone adapted, whether by However, as soon as they arrived, they got word of the Huntington restricting travel, using ration books or waving good-bye to a family flood and had to tum around and hurry home. Of course people could member. At Indiana he went to classes all day, beginning at 8 o'clock not get into the city because the streets were under water so they drove in the morning, five days a week, and did military training on Saturdays. home on the railroad tracks. They found water covering the downtown Homework had to fit in at night among other demands. area but they were able to salvage their home and business. After reaching his 18th birthday, Bill was sent to Fort McClellan, These and other events which young people today would not Alabama, for basic training. During this time he had no idea whether find nearly so exciting were high points because life moved at a slower he would be sent to Europe or to combat in another theater. At the end pace at that time. The Depression, which did not end until World War of 13 weeks he was pulled out and told that some in his group would II began, directed the course of many lives. Willis says that people be going to Europe and some to the Far East but that he was being sent were poor in Huntington, and in the whole country for that matter, but to New York University in New York City to study engineering, for that "he never really felt poor." He worked part-time at Willis Furniture which he had shown aptitude. This was welcome news indeed. By the 144 PROFILES IN PROMINENCE PROFILES IN PROMINENCE 145 time he had completed three semesters at NYU's College of Engineering schools, his curriculum at Marshall was concentrated in political in the Bronx, the war had ended. He remembers a group of his fellow science, philosophy, economics, history and language. students going down to Times Square to celebrate when V-J Day was Campus life was very different for armed service returnees whose announced. Willis did not go but "just stayed around wondering what lives had been interrupted two, three, four years by the war. Willis was was going to happen next." He thought about the great relieffelt around better off than most because he had not lost as much time and had the country and the effects on families. earned college credits, but he was as eager as the others to get on with Because discharge from the Army was based on a point system his life. The sense of camaraderie students feel today sitting together with points awarded for each month of active duty at home or overseas, in classes, cheering at ball games and socializing at the student center Bill was unable to get released for a while. While he awaited discharge was not a part of the college experience for these young men. Some he served with an Engineer Combat Unit in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, worked and supported families in addition to seeking an education so and at Fort Monroe, Virginia. His mother's insistence on his taking a they had no time to dally. They came to class, lingering on campus typing class-he being the only male in the class-at Enslow Junior only if they needed to put in some time on a library project or consult High School proved to be the ticket to promotion. That skill, in a time with a professor. So it was for Bill. He walked the mile or two from when soldiers were pouring in to be processed for discharge, made his house, went to class and walked back. Willis valuable. Unusually rapid promotion followed and in 1946, at "Shawkey Student Union? I don't think I was ever in there." No the ripe age of 19, he was discharged as a Staff Sergeant even though one had much money for entertainment and Bill's consisted of the his ranking officer tried to persuade him to stay on for a career in the Artist Series and some of the lectures arranged from time to time. The Army. largest single concentration of his time went to the Political Science Immediately after discharge he returned to Huntington, Department, where he did get to know the faculty. determined to enter Marshall College to complete his undergraduate Bill may have been a no-nonsense guy when it came to his requirements and prepare to attend law school. He is not sure how he education, but he does point out the highlight of his time at Marshall. came to make that decision. "I never knew a lawyer and my father Here he met Joyce Litteral, a student in the Teachers College from thought they were all dishonest." He had accumulated enough G.l. Crown Hill, West Virginia. He, a summa cum laude graduate, and she, Bill points for three years of college tuition. He knew that law school with the highest academic standing in her class, graduated at the same would be expensive, but planned to attend Marshall for $37.50 per time. He observes that "the opportunities for bright women in those semester, live at home, and save the government funds for later. He days were very much directed to teaching." smiles, "I had been away a long time so being at home was nice and He sought advice on the best law schools in the country because Marshall was a good place to go. And it was not expensive, so that just his tuition would be paid by the G.I. Bill no matter whether he went to worked out-worked out fine." West Virginia University with its $100 tuition or to Harvard with its Carrying his transcripts from Indiana University and New York $500. Narrowing the list, he applied to Harvard, Columbia, Yale and University, he met with the Marshall registrar, who decided his credit Michigan. These four were considered the best then and are still at the issue. It was agreed that he would take heavier than normal course top of the charts. He was accepted by all but Yale, which wanted a loads and go continuously throughout the summers. Thus he could personal interview. Traveling to New Haven was financially out of the graduate by May of 1948. Since he had taken a great deal of question, so he did not pursue that application. Faced with choosing mathematics, physics, chemistry and engineering at the other two among the others he went to his advisors in the Political Science PROFILES IN PROMINENCE PROFILES IN PROMINENCE 147

Department. Everyone said "Oh, Harvard; you've got to go to Harvard." was a senior partner at the time and his brother Allen Dulles was on Bill thinks that they may not have known any more about it than he leave from the firm to head the Central Intelligence Agency. did "but it sounded better." Thus, in September 1948 he headed off for Bill began work as an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell in August another new experience, three years of law studies in Cambridge, 1951. The firm was considered quite large at the time with some 90 Massachusetts. lawyers. Over the years it has grown to more than 500 attorneys with Meanwhile, Joyce took a job teaching English at Chester High four offices in the United States and six offices in other parts of the School in Hancock County, West Virginia. The next year she and Bill world. He became a partner in 1959, rather a rapid rise for the times, were married. The "crowd," as he puts it, at the wedding consisted of but as he reminds us he had not lost as much time as some during the Joyce's mother and brother and his parents and brother. Immediately war. What he modestly does not emphasize is how hard he worked. after the ceremony they left for Cambridge and Bill's second year of No insistence on nine to five hours or on handling only certain kinds law school. He comments, "No one had money for honeymoons in of cases for him. If you do that he says, "you are not going to succeed. those days." Joyce worked in the Law School Library and taught in a I mean, I don't care if you're in New York or Huntington or wherever, high school in Cambridge run by Leslie College while Bill earned the people who are at the top of the profession work on it." That meant extra money working on the Harvard Board of Student Advisors. entertainment was fairly limited to meeting Joyce after work for the Many students these days go to law school intending to specialize opera, a long time interest for her, and going off on short family in a particular area of the law. That was not Willis' way, then or ever. vacations in the summer. He believes that the more one learns about his chosen field, be it law, He headed the litigation group of Sullivan & Cromwell for medicine, carpentry or whatever, the better off he will be. "The worst approximately 18 years and then became a member for some 15 years kind of lawyer is one who knows only all there is to know about one of the small executive committee that ran the firm. As an executive legal area such as tax law. He's not even a good tax lawyer," he observes. committee member he was principally in charge of firm operations, "The same goes for a surgeon who knows about only one body part. billing and firm finances but he also continued his active trial practice Broad information is the best." at the same time. One of his assignments was to research installing As graduation approached, in 1951, Willis began to give serious computers in the firm. As a consequence he set out to learn all he thought to his future law practice. One obvious possibility was hanging could about the machines, an experience which made him computer out a shingle on his own, another was joining a firm in Huntington. literate far ahead of most. Again he reminds us that his typing skills, But, since most of the better students were accepting jobs in New learned at his mother's insistence in Enslow Junior High School and York, he decided to do that for a couple of years' experience before which stood him in such good stead in the Army, enabled him to work moving back to his home town. He was not intimidated by the Big quickly at the computer keyboard. In 1994, he retired as an active Apple, having spent nine months at New York University during the partner to Senior Counsel status. war. A senior partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, one of the largest and Willis' law practice was concentrated in commercial litigation in best-known firms in the country, invited him for an interview. Unlike courts all over the United States. He handled antitrust litigation cases today, where law associate interviewees are flown in for a wining and in the steel, oil, automobile, plumbing fixtures, tire, concrete pipe, dining courtship, Bill took the train from Boston at his own expense. armored car, newspaper and magazine, electric shaver and liquor Sullivan & Cromwell, founded in 1876, had a diverse practice in industries. Communication law cases included the AT&T consent corporate work, banking, industrial corporations and international law. decree, television license renewals, satellite communications disputes John Foster Dulles, later Secretary of State under President Eisenhower, and cases involving computerized legal research. In sports law he PROFILES IN PROMINENCE PROFILES IN PROMINENCE 149 represented the National Football League regularly in player disputes, could be searched remotely by the use of the telephone lines. Previously, challenges to free agency and other issues. He represented Exxon over lawyers had to spend many, many hours in law libraries researching many years in international law, antitrust and patent cases, including cases. Large firms held the advantage with the funds to support disputes arising from the grounding of the Exxon Valdez. Also he extensive libraries. Lawyers in small towns or practicing alone could handled securities law and banking law litigation and disputes over not come close to such facilities. LEXIS erased these inequities, offering corporate control, including mergers and acquisitions. access to information for all without having to leave their desks. The The so-called New York lawyer managed cases from Anchorage, Internet took the system a step further. Alaska, to Miami, Florida, and from Boston, Massachusetts, to San Willis reflects on the difference improved communications have Diego, California. He has had cases over the years in every one of the made on the practice of law, or any other profession or occupation, 13 Federal Courts of Appeals as well as the Court of Claims and the saying that, "everything moves with a much greater speed than it did Tax Court. Here we see the result of Bill's philosophy of the benefits 50 years ago." Then, before the copier, fax machine and computer, of broad-based knowledge! people communicated by letter or telephone. However, letters took The above list of cases is extensive, so Bill elaborated upon a days to turn around and there was no teleconferencing. Foreign calls few. For example, he represented Satellite Business Systems, a might take hours and connections could be terrible. "And so," he communications joint venture of IBM, COMSAT and Aetna, before observes, "life moved rather slowly by today's standards. With the Federal Communications Commission and the Court of Appeals communication being what it is, everything goes at the speed of light­ for the District of Columbia Circuit in obtaining authority to launch messages back and forth-and you can have a month of correspondence and operate the first commercial communications satellite. This in an hour if two people want to do that." authority was granted over opposition on antitrust grounds of the The downside of all this wondrous progress is that you need Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, AT&T, MCI and fewer people to accomplish what could be done fifty years ago. Bill others. As a consequence he was invited to Cape Canaveral to observe recalls every partner in Sullivan & Cromwell having a secretary and a the launch of the first space shuttle carrying a commercial payload, general pool of secretaries available around the clock. But he says that the SBS satellite. today a secretary can do in an hour with a computer what a group of Another communications case saw him acting as one of the lead secretaries could not have done in a day then. Turning out 12 copies of counsel before the District Court for the District of Columbia with a document is a snap now. Then it had to be typed with carbon paper Judge Harold Greene on the bench, representing the communications "which was fine as long as you didn't make a mistake. If you made a industry in the hearings related to the Department of Justice consent mistake you had to make conections on 12 pages." antitrust decree requiring the breakup of AT&T. He applauds the accuracy and productivity allowed by today's Of great importance was his advising Mead-Data-Central, a technology but notes the lack of relationships, of office camaraderie. subsidiary of the Mead Corporation, in the early development of the Willis first represented the Exxon Corporation, fonnerly Standard LEXIS computerized legal research service and representation of the Oil Company of New Jersey, in international antitrust litigation and company in the litigation with West Publishing Company pertaining claims for refunds on oil sold under the Marshall Plan. His to the claimed infringement of West's proprietary rights to published representation of Exxon in stockholders litigations, which commenced court decisions. LEXIS, developed long before today's Internet, was in Anchorage, Alaska, and in New York arising out of the Exxon Valdez one of the very first integrated uses of computers and oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, ended in dismissal of all of telecommunications to permit the assembly of massive databases that the claims against Exxon directors, and his representing the company PROFILES IN PROMINENCE 150 PROFILES IN PROMINENCE in its claims for reimbursement against its insurers resulted ultimately games were suspended. The NFL Players Union then sought to field in recovery of $780 million. teams in a shadow league, which the NFL contended violated player Bill used one of the Exxon cases to illustrate the loss of civility contracts. An injunction proceeding was instituted in the District Court among lawyers in recent years. He talks about being brought in to take in Washington, which found for the players, but was reversed in the over an Exxon case after it had been going for almost two years and Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. This all took receiving his first communication from the opposing firm. place in the midst of media frenzy until the strike was settled and a "The first letter I got was one from the other side that was calling shortened season resumed. us every name in the book and I hadn't done anything yet." He says Fans also will be interested in his successful defense of the New that "in the old days" lawyers could be against one another in the England Patriots in the Federal District Court of Massachusetts in an courtroom but then leave chatting and go out to have dinner together. antitrust challenge to its practice of package sale of pre-season and It was "only the clients who were mad at each other." He attributes the regular-season tickets. That decision led to the dismissal of other ?reakdown to lawyers getting personally involved in the controversy pending cases against other NFL clubs. mstead of remaining objectively above matters in cases. Furthermore Some other important cases include Bill's representing the he feels that the extreme speed of communication contributes to the American Standard Corporation in a criminal indictment charging price problem. Insults can be traded with great rapidity and without time for fixing in the sale of plumbing fixtures, a case tried unsuccessfully reflection nowadays. Fifty years ago one might have received a over a five-month period in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and in some communication he thought offensive, "but he had some time to think 500 related private civil actions instituted throughout the nation, about what was the proper response, whereas now you get something including numerous class actions, all eventually consolidated in over e-mail that you think is insulting so your reaction is to shoot back Baltimore, Maryland. The private actions constituted the largest an insult that will top that one." collection of such private actions up to that time. Bill then acted as He chuckles when Marshall University people ask him to talk lead for the plumbing industry in the settlement of all those actions. about memorable litigation, because they seem the most interested in He represented Jones & Laughlin Steel in various antitrust grand the f~otball cases. There certainly are many and you could argue with jury investigations commenced under President Kennedy and in certamty that what Bill Willis did altered the course of the National Congressional investigations pertaining to the pridng of steel; Football League. He represented the NFL versus Joe Kapp, a star represented the Newhouse companies in an investigation by the quarterback who played for the Minnesota Vikings and the New Department of Justice with respect to the closing of its St. Louis England Patriots, in his challenge to the player restrictions in the NFL newspaper and merger with the St. Louis Post Dispatch and in Standard Player Contract. connection with an antitrust grand jury investigation of the purchase . After a widely publicized trial in San Francisco, the jury found by the Cleveland Plain Dealer of the subscriber list of a failing daily m favor of the NFL and the case was affirmed by the Court of Appeals Cleveland newspaper; represented the Government of the Netherlands for the Ninth Circuit. He also successfully defended the NFL in an in many lawsuits filed in the United States to recover securities arbitration commenced by the NFL Players Association challenging wrongfully seized by the German Government dming World War II the NFL restrictions on free agency, the same type of challenge that from Jews living in The Netherlands; represented American Motors in Major League Baseball lost. the uial of the first action by an automobile dealer against an automobile O.f pa~ticular interest to fans is Bill's representing the NFL through manufacturer under the Automobile Dealers Day in Court Act, which the maJor football strike in 1982 during which professional football ended in dismissal of the claim; and defended Remy Martin of Cognac, PROFILES IN PROMINENCE PROFILES IN PROMINENCE 153

France, against charges by its former United States distributor that it staff and the Department of Justice as well as in frequent consultation had been terminated in violation of the antitrust laws. with the Senate Judiciary chairmen. He met often in the White House Service to the American Bar Association looms large in Bill's with the President's counsel and testified a number oftimes before the career. He has served on and chaired numerous committees for the Senate Judiciary Committee on Supreme Court and other court Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the New York nominees on behalf of the American Bar Association. Modestly he State Bar Association. Prominent among these are the NYSBAAntitrust says, "The work has, I think, contributed a bit to the high quality of Committee, Committee on International Trade and Committee on the Federal judiciary." Judicial Administration and the ABCNY Committees on Professional When asked how the practice of law has changed other than Discipline, Grievances, Judiciary, Code of Professional Responsibility through the infusion of technology, Bill reflects that, of course, the and State Courts of Superior Jurisdiction. firms are much bigger and spread into worldwide offices. "As far as His most intense activity and greatest contribution arose from the law itself the big change, which is unfortunate, is that law has his two terms as Chair and two three-year terms as a member of the become so expensive that the middle-class citizen can't afford it." Fees ABA's Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary. This committee, since for a lawyer's time have skyrocketed, excluding people with average 1953, is made up of 15 lawyers from all over the United States who incomes. review, investigate and report upon the qualifications of all those He points out that the alternative of arbitration grew up because proposed by the President for nomination to the Federal courts, the expense and lagging pace of litigation pushed us in that direction. including the Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals and the District Courts. There is no need for the process of discovery; "you just get an arbitrator It was formed as a result of President Eisenhower's desire, along with and the two of you go in there and tell your tale and he or she will that of Herbert Brownell, his Attorney General, to use the American decide it." Willis likens the change to what happened to the postal Bar Association in vetting potential judicial candidates. When the service. "It was not able to keep up and give the quick turnaround that President is about to name someone to a judgeship the White House the people wanted so in came Federal Express. If the district courts gives the name secretly to the committee and the group then conducts had somehow been able to handle litigation less expensively and more an investigation into whether the nominee is professionally competent, expeditiously you wouldn't have an arbitrator." The process of whether he or she knows the law, has integrity and possesses the arbitration is a help, but something has been lost. temperament necessary to be a Federal Judge. At the same time the On the subject of today's litigiousness, Willis observes that it FBI investigates for any spots on the person's record. has been growing for years. The attitude people had when he was The committee reports to the President on whether it deems the growing up he says was that "a lot of things happened to you that you person competent or not, never getting involved in his or her political don;t necessarily ascribe fault to somebody for and expect to get money views. Willis questions the current Bush administration's wisdom in for it." Furthermore, he says, "When you think of all the men in West announcing that it will no longer use the committee. He points to the Virginia who have died of black lung disease from the teens and twenties judges the committee has recommended over the last 20 to 30 years, and thirties-they didn't sue anybody and maybe if they had they would saying "there's every shade of view you could imagine" with no hint have recovered something. But today there is a feeling that if anything of leaning either to the right or left. He also deplores the loss of a happens to me there's got to be somebody there that I can sue. And of backup in finding potential problems the FBI might miss by not asking course there's a lawyer who will bring a lawsuit." the sort of questions a fellow lawyer would ask. He deplores the fact that people are less likely to take Willis' work on the committee demanded a great deal of time responsibility for their own actions and that they not only seek to blar:ne and effort, but kept him in almost daily contact with the White House someone else by suing, but they also add punitive damages. "Compan1es 154 PROFILES IN PROMINENCE PROFILES IN PROMINENCE 155 may settle a suit just because it is more economical to do so than to "sharp intellect and a willingness for hard work" and the vivid incur the expense of fighting it. That encourages the lawsuit because demonstration of the rewards of strong personal characteristics. people see the results and expect the company to pay up the next time There is little need for Bill Willis to offer advice to students, it gets sued." since they can learn by observing what curiosity, a broad based For this Bill puts some of the blame on the courts, saying, "The continuing education and hard work have produced in him. However, system is designed to protect weak cases. The courts are not as ready he does have something to say to those coming along. He urges young to throw out crazy cases as they should be." He also favors placing people to seek a liberal education in the classical sense. That is, to take limits on punitive damages. "What the companies get hit with in wide-ranging courses and not bog down in one subject. "I think addition to giving you $10,000 to make up for your loss of your job or education should give you a broad-based foundation to do anything­ whatever is throwing in $500,000 in punitive damages to teach the to go to medical school, to go to law school, to go to engineering defendant a lesson." The problem is that everybody who sues wants school, or become a physicist." In the truly educated person one lesson punitive damages. So does the defendant get taught a lesson in case learned will lead to curiosity about something else, perhaps in a totally after case? He declares, "That's not what lawsuits are supposed to be unrelated field, and he or she will be compelled to learn even more. about. If you are trying to change behavior you are moving into social He emphasizes that one cannot declare, "I'm not going to take this change, trying to get society to do something about a problem. If that course. I don't know how we're going to make money out of it." If he is the case then the change should take place through the social or had done that he would never have attained the rewards of a legislative process, not through the courts. The way they (the courts) distinguished career, an ongoing eclectic education, the gratitude of should decide the question is to look at the Constitution, look at the those helped professionally and casually, and the knowledge that he statute, look at how it's been decided before and then come up with has indeed contributed to making the world a better place! what they think is the right answer. Obviously judges should not go out and say, 'I'm going to make a law.' " Bill has shared his time with the Society of Yeager Scholars through service on the Board of Directors and he and Joyce Martha Woodward is Director of the Center for Academic Excellence enthusiastically supported the building of the John Deaver Drinko at Marshall University. Library at Marshall University verbally and financially. He wrote at the time the library was being constructed: You~ library project, ~ith i_ts heavy emphasis on technology, is exactly the nght course at the nght ttrne. The scholar, the researcher, the innovator can work from l6'h Street in Huntington just as effectively as he or she can fr?m Cambridge, Silicon Valley or any other place, with the mind­ bogglmg technolo_gy being developed daily. It is excellence (including hard work!) ~hat wtll cou~t. It seems to me that for the first time in hi story the wor~d w~ll confront m the years to come a relatively level playing fteld. Htstoncal advantages will be less important. Also I think that we are m ~shake-out period of economic history with new geographic leaders emergmg. This presents West Virginia and Marshall with a tremendous opportunity. A grateful Marshall University conferred upon Willis in May 1997 a Doctor of Humane Letters degree. The citation referred to his