Patrick Willis is a UT Tyler graduate who’s been a driving force behind East Texas charities and businesses for decades. He’s created transformative training programs and now serves as executive director of the Byers Family Foundation.
From his formative years as an undecided college student to his current influential role in philanthropy, Willis’s journey is inspiring. He shares his first brush with community service, the influential figures who mentored him, and his passion for nonprofit work.
MIKE LANDESS: For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess. He’s arguably the most influential Tylerite you may never have heard of. For more than 25 years, UT Tyler grad Patrick Willis has been the go-to guy for charitable groups, and businesses, and even politicians, in East Texas looking to expand their reach and spread their story. He’s even created a couple of nonprofit training series called “The Seven Arenas of Infinite Possibilities” and “The Five Core Stages of Nonprofit Organizations.” Patrick Willis is our guest today. Welcome.
PATRICK WILLIS: Hi, Mike. Thanks so much for having me. That’s quite a nice intro. I appreciate that.
LANDESS: Well, it’s good to have you here. Now, you help everyone, from nonprofits to businesses and politicians, get their story out. Is there any pie you don’t have your fingers in?
WILLIS: Well, I certainly have quite a lot of areas that I’ve worked in over the years and even have added to that in the work I’m doing now as the executive director for a newly formed Family Foundation, the Byers Family Foundation. So, I’m also in that arena of the community of nonprofit work as well, kind of on the other side, I guess, if you will. But this is what I did right out of graduating from The University of Texas at Tyler.
LANDESS: We love UT Tyler graduate success stories, and yours is right at the top of the list. What drew you to the field that you’ve had so much success in?
WILLIS: I can tell you that when I was starting out in my educational journey, I toured several colleges throughout the state-TCU and SMU and down to The University of Texas, the mother ship of UT Austin, and looked at several other places and really didn’t know what I wanted to do. And I had the fortunate benefit of knowing Dorothy Fay White, and Dorothy Fay and Jack White were enormous benefactors to education, not only at the university but also at TJC (Tyler Junior College), which is one of our other esteemed colleges in this community. And Dorothy Fay told me, she said, “If you really don’t know what you want to do, I would suggest you start at TJC for a year and see where you want to go.” And as I did that, I was a runner at the Potter-Minton Law Firm, where Charlie Potter actually was still living and was of counsel, but at the time, Mike Jones was the head of the law firm. And I worked there and was introduced to people like Dub Riter and Bill Hartley and Emma Wise and Jim Vaughn and Norman Shtofman and began to volunteer. And as those volunteer capacities, when they included me in things, I’d help out with name tags at the table, or I’d help out with whatever those kinds of tasks needed to happen at the community events that they were putting on and discovered that I could actually do this for a living. And at 19, served on the American Heart Association’s board of directors here, and from that parlayed Peggy Berry, who’s also a fundraising consultant, introduced me to John Anderson, and John at the time was the head of the UT Health Science Center’s advancement team. And I stumbled into a degree in philanthropy created by my advisor at UT Tyler, Dr. Wally McCartle. And Dr. McCartle helped me create there’s no other way, I guess a degree in philanthropy. But it was housed in the Communication department, and I spent 2 years at the Health Science Center working and learning under John Anderson and the UT system. And so, I was interacting with all those folks. So, it just sort of got started, and I listened to Dorothy Faye White and eventually ended up doing something that I’ve been doing now, 27 years.
LANDESS: I’m listening to these names that you just roll off, and I’m thinking to myself ABC, NBC, CBS. They think they’re networks; you’re a network all into yourself.
WILLIS: That’s funny.
LANDESS: Tyler’s been described by many we’ve interviewed here on UT Tyler Radio over the past few years as a very giving community. Having tuition for the first two classes of the UT Tyler Medical School paid for in advance. Boy, that certainly says that. Why Tyler? Why East Texas, do you think?
WILLIS: In the philanthropic landscape, and I talked about those individuals I just rattled off, people like Dub Riter and Dorothy Faye and Jack, people like James Fair at the Fair Foundation, and of course now obviously, Bob Garrett. They believed in success in the industries that they’re in, and they believe in taking that success and parlaying it back to make the community better. And I know that may sound cliche, but the people that I’ve known all these years, they really mean it. UT Tyler is here because we had a few really strong community leaders who believed Tyler deserved a university. TJC has lasted since 1926 because we had community leaders who believed education was important, and the same at Texas College. We have three institutions of higher education and those individuals believe it. Today, we wouldn’t have this medical school if Kevin Eltife, former state senator, had not really believed we could do this and helped marshal a group of people together. This is impressive for a town of our size. But philanthropy is important, and the success they built on has really emboldened philanthropy.
LANDESS: You’ve been very much involved in the Tyler Rose Festival. Some young people might dismiss the importance of the festival and what it represents. What drew you to it and why is it important?
WILLIS: The Texas Rose Festival is important because it defines Tyler. It gives us a platform for which we can hang our hat, basically. The way it was started, Judge Thomas B. Ramey, Sr., went to Chicago in 1933 to the World’s Fair. And Judge Ramey, this is God-honest story, and if you talk to his children and grandchildren, they’ll tell you, and I have talked to both his late son and his grandchildren about it. Judge Ramey was looking around at a display of roses in the Chicago World’s Fair and thought they were attractive and asked the attendant, “What are these?” And he said they’re from a little town in Texas, you’ve never heard of them. And it was Tyler, Texas. And so, 6 weeks later, the first Texas Rose Festival. Back then they called it the “Tyler Rose Festival.” Later on, they changed it to Texas Rose Festival. But Judge Ramey came back and 6 weeks later, they formed it, and now we’re celebrating 90 years. It is a great way to involve all aspects of the community that can participate in different ways in different places, but we can all share the same pride and it gives us something to centrally focus that pride on.
LANDESS: That Hispanic aspect that was brought in last year is coming back again.
WILLIS: It is fantastic. Ginger Young, a prominent attorney here in the community, was responsible for really heading that up and getting that going.
LANDESS: Any final thoughts you’d like to share with our listeners?
WILLIS: Well, I appreciate being asked to do this. I love UT Tyler. I love what it means to the community. I love to walk around the campus and see the names of the people on these buildings, because I knew so many of them and their hearts were here, so that students that will never know who they were will benefit from their monetary contributions and their sweat equity in building this university. I guess we’re 50 years old at this point, which is hard to believe, but you know, I think back through, you know I was here when George Hamm was the president. All through Dr. Mabry’s tenure and then now Dr. Calhoun. They’ve had some great leadership, and they’ve accomplished some great things for the university.
LANDESS: Our guest has been UT Tyler grad, and successful business, nonprofit and political consulting expert, Patrick Willis. To hear this interview again or to share it, go to KVUT.org. I’m Mike Landess for UT Tyler Radio.
(Transcripts are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)