Friday, November 24, 2006
Bennett Willis Jr., 90, a retired Justice Department lawyer and director of its Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, died
Nov. 16 at Inova Fairfax Hospital after a heart attack.
Mr. Willis began his federal career in the early 1940s as an FBI special agent in counterintelligence based in New York City. He
joined the Justice Department in the 1950s as a trial lawyer and later was chief of the management office. He retired in the late
1970s.
On one Justice Department assignment in the late 1950s, he chaired an inter-agency committee on internal security that was
part of the National Security Council.
In retirement, he briefly worked as a real estate agent in Northern Virginia. He also submitted amusing anecdotes and
published gaffes to newspapers and magazines.
Mr. Willis was born in New York and raised in Washington. He was a graduate of Western High School in the District and
George Washington University's law school.
His memberships included the Fairfax County Crime Commission and the United World Federalists, an organization advocating
international cooperation.
He was a former board member of the Boys Clubs of Washington and a charter member of the World Peace Through Law
Center. He was a delegate to the law center's 1967 world conference in Geneva.
Last year, he moved to the Greenspring Village retirement community in Springfield from his longtime home in McLean.
Survivors include his wife of 61 years, Jane Boland Willis of Springfield; and a son, James B. Willis of McLean.