Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Longtime LV businessman Vernon Willis dies at age 88
Ex-president of chamber, other clubs started travel agency in 1950
By HUBBLE SMITH
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Vernon Willis, a prominent Las Vegas businessman for 40 years and guest financial columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal until 1991, died Sunday night at a nursing home in Salt Lake City. He was 88.
Willis moved to Las Vegas in 1940 from California and became district manager for Western Airlines, which was later acquired by Delta.
He started Willis Travel Agency around 1950 and was elected president of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce after serving on its board of directors for many years. He also was president of the Las Vegas Rotary Club, founder of the Las Vegas Press Club and a national director from Nevada for the American Cancer Society.
Willis was self-educated and self-made, his son, Paul, said Monday from Salt Lake City.
Born Nov. 12, 1914, in Penn's Grove, N.J., Willis worked on Wall Street as a young man and was a pioneer in bringing the securities industry to Las Vegas, Paul Willis said.
"He was very instrumental in getting Wall Street to look at financing casinos," the son said. "One of the first deals he helped put together is the Golden Nugget."
Willis joined the investment banking and brokerage firm Eastman Dillon and Co. in 1956 and the company aggressively underwrote and sold stocks and bonds to develop Nevada.
"When we first started selling Golden Nugget stock, a lot of local people bought it but few people outside the state bought it," Willis told the Review-Journal in 1980. "Interestingly enough, a number of people in England bought it."
After Eastman Dillon was acquired by Paine Webber in 1979, Willis took a position as resident manager for Dain Bosworth, where he stayed until his retirement.
"His demeanor was the most even-tempered, kind and caring human being," Paul Willis said." He could talk to anybody and he had a wonderful sense of humor."
Willis lived with his wife in Las Vegas until he developed Alzheimer's disease in the past few years and was brought to Salt Lake City to be near his son.
Services are scheduled for March 8, 11 a.m., at Palm Mortuary, 7600 S. Eastern Ave.
He is survived by his wife, Helen, of Salt Lake City; son, Paul, of Salt Lake City; and three grandchildren.
