[3] At the age of thirteen he was taken to England and Germany for four years of schooling, and thus acquired fluency in German at a time when many scientific texts were only available in that language.

[10] Willis also called for comprehensive state intervention in the enforcement of the national park at Lake Nahuel Huapí.

He was commissioned by the Director General de Agricultura, Dr. Julio López Mañán, to prepare a study on the Nahuel Huapi National Park.

It is claimed that many of California's early building codes were inspired by experiments performed by Willis on an "earthquake table" at Stanford University.

[13] Willis, concerned about the dangers of earthquakes convinced engineers to dig the foundation of the southern tower of the Golden Gate Bridge deeper.

[14] After finishing his work with the USGS, he was appointed as a professor and chairman of the geology department at Stanford University, where he served until 1922.

Stating "After considering the theory of continental drift with avowed impartiality, the author concludes by means of geophysical, geological and paleontologic reasoning that it should be rejected, because the original suggestion of the idea sprang from a similarity of form (coast lines of Africa and South America) which in itself constitutes no demonstration, because such a drift would have destroyed the similarity by faulting, and because other contradictions destroy the necessary consequences of the hypothesis."

In 1932, he published "Isthmian Links"[19] in the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America.I confess that my reason refuses to consider "continental drift" possible....

It is a fascinating fancy which has captured imaginations.Among the numerous honors which came to Willis during his long life were an honorary Ph.D. degree from the University of Berlin and the Gold Medal of the Société de Géographie of France in 1910, the Legion of Honor, Belgium, in 1936, and in 1944 he was awarded the Penrose Medal by the Geological Society of America.