Paul Allen Willis died December 5, 2024, in Georgetown, South Carolina, at age 83.
Upon graduation from the University of Kentucky (UK) in 1963, Paul moved to Washington, DC, where he worked at NASA and earned his master’s in library science from the University of Maryland. In 1966, he returned to Kentucky, where he enrolled in UK Law School, graduating in 1969.
Paul served as the director of the UK Law Library in 1969 and, in 1974, rose to the position of UK’s director of libraries, where he oversaw the university’s library system for 28 years. Paul led the institution through the transition to an online catalog; created the Information Alliance consortium with Vanderbilt University and The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; and initiated the first development program for the UK Libraries, securing both significant in-kind gifts and monetary support. Paul’s career at UK culminated in the planning and construction of the William T. Young Library. Upon Paul’s retirement from UK in 2002, he became dean of libraries at the University of South Carolina. In that position, he led the fundraising and planning effort for the Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library. He retired from South Carolina in 2007.
In the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Paul served on the Board of Directors 2002–2005, the Diversity Committee 2003–2005, and the Scholars Portal Working Group 2001–2002.
Funeral services were held on December 13 in Brandenburg, Kentucky. To plant trees in Paul’s memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.
For more details about Paul’s life and career, see his Lexington Herald-Leader obituary and the UK Libraries memorial.
