William Hailey Willis (April 29, 1916, Meridian, Mississippi – July 13, 2000, Durham, North Carolina)[1] was an American classicist and a leading twentieth century papyrologist.
[4] 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.
[6][7][8] Willis' scholarly career included extensive work on papyrology and he published numerous papers dealing with ancient papyri.
[9][10][11] He was instrumental in building the papyrus collection now housed at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University and in advancing the efforts of the papyrus research center, then called the Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri,[12][13] 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.
[13] At Duke Willis also served as editor of the journal Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies.