Willis, John Ralph

John Ralph Willis (1938-2007), African American educator and art collector, was born in Lorain, Ohio to John R. Willis, Sr. and Lena Mae Tinch Willis. He was a cousin of noted African American author Tony Morrison. Willis received a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizaon, a master's degree from Boston University and a Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London where he was a Marshall Scholar. He was a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Birmingham (UK) before joining the faculty in Princeton University's Department of Near Eastern Studies in 1972. He was an expert in West African History and Islamic Law; Director of Princeton's program in African American Studies; founder of Slavery and Abolition: A Journal of Comparative Studies; advisor to the Cass Library of African Studies; and a fellow of the Morgan Library. Willis was also an art collector, and wrote the catalog for "Fragment of American Life," an exhibition at Princeton University focusing on seven African-American artists, including Romare Bearden, Joseph Delaney, Rex Goreleigh, Lois Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Hughie Lee-Smith, and Hale Woodruff. Willis married Anne Jones in 1972 and the couple had three children together; a daughter, Avery and two sons, Kingsley and Gorleigh. He also had two daughters, Ashley and Courtney, from a previous marriage. Willis died of a heart attack in November 2007 at age 69.