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William Hailey Willis (April 29, 1916, Meridian, Mississippi – July 13, 2000, Durham, North Carolina) was an American classicist and a leading twentieth century papyrologist.
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Early life
Willis was the son of William W. Willis and Clara B. (Hailey) Willis. He married Rachel E. (Hamilton) Willis on December 20, 1943, in Meridian, MS.
Scholarly career
Willis was educated at Mississippi College (B.A.), Columbia University (M.A.), and Yale University (Ph.D.). Willis was a professor of Classics at the University of Mississippi from 1946 until 1963, when he relocated to Duke University. Willis' decision to change institutions in 1963 was related, in part, to the strife that surrounded racial integration at the University of Mississippi, a cause that he had both supported and advanced. In 1973 Willis served as president of the American Philological Association. He was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in 1980.
Willis' scholarly career included extensive work on papyrology and he published numerous papers dealing with ancient papyri.
He was instrumental in advancing the efforts of the papyrus research center, Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri, at Duke. He was credited with producing an electronic edition of the Duke Data Bank of Documentary Papyri that was disseminated on CD-ROM by the Packard Humanities Institute. At Duke Willis also served as editor of the journal Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies.