Résumé

Principal, Beverly Willis, Architect, San Francisco, CA, 1958- .

President and Founding Director, Architecture Research Institute, Inc., 1994-;

Professional Activities

Registered Architect in the State of CA,1966.

Founding Trustee, National Building Museum, Washington, 1976-present;

Chair, Federal Construction Council, 1976-79; (Willis was the first woman to chair the Federal Construction Council);

Member, Building Research Advisory Board National Academy of Science, 1971-79;

President, American Institute of Architects, California Council (AIACC).

President, Golden Gate Chapter of Lambda Alpha Society, the honorary society for Land Economics.

Founder, Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, New York, NY, 2002.

Professional Awards

Fellow, American Institute of Architects (FAIA), 1980.

The Beverly Willis Architectural Papers 1954-1998 are located at the International Archive of Women in Architecture, Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, VA, Collection Number Ms92-019;

College

Coursework, Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 1946-1948.

B.Fine Arts, University of Hawaii, Manoa, Honolulu, HI, 1954. At Hawaii, Willis studied with the muralist Jean Charlot(1898-1979), who moved to islands in 1949.

Relocation

Beverly Ann Willis was born to a nurse and oil patch businessman in Tulsa, OK. Between 1905 and 1928, Tulsa had experienced a flurry of oil investment, as a giant reservoir of oil under Tulsa, the Glenn Pool Field, had been discovered and pumped, reaping enormous wealth for some in the city and region. Willis had early childhood memories of studying Oil Patch vehicles and drilling mechanisms and climbing and playing on oil derricks like it they were schoolyard equipment. The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture said of this oil bonanza in the state: "Oil ushered Oklahoma into the twentieth century and gave it an economic base that for decades allowed continued development. The state's petroleum deposits lie within a vast reserve called the Mid-Continent Region, an area that also encompasses Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and New Mexico. For twenty-two years between 1900 and 1935 Oklahoma ranked first among the Mid-Continent states in oil production and for nine additional years ranked second. During that period the state produced 906,012,375 barrels of oil worth approximately $5.28 billion." (See The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.org, "Petroleum Industry," accessed 10/05/2023.)

In 1928, Beverly's parent had a residence at 515 South Utica Avenue in Tulsa. OK. Ralph Willis managed the Stoody Product Sales Company, a firm that sold oil well supplies. (See R.L. Polk and Company's Tulsa, Oklahoma, City Directory, 1928, p. 612 and 680.) A year later, with a new baby in the house, they moved to 1236 South Lewis Avenue in Tulsa. (See R.L. Polk and Company's Tulsa, Oklahoma, City Directory, 1929, p. 686.)

While she may have been born in Tulsa, she lived between 1930 and 1933, at least, in Oklahoma City. After 1928, Oklahoma City experienced a surge of growth following a major oil strike in that area. The Foster Petroleum Company and Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company (ITIO) struck a huge oil reservoir with its Oklahoma City Well #1 on 12/04/1928, shifting a great deal of oil exploration and related capital investment from Tulsa to Oklahoma City (OKC). (See The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.org, "Petroleum Industry," accessed 10/05/2023.) OKC's population soared between 1920 and 1930 from 91,000 to 185,000.

Beverly lived with her parents in a residence at 329 NW 22nd Street in Oklahoma City, OK, by 1930. Ralph W. Willis was the president of a machine company in Oklahoma City, while Margaret was not working at this time, according to the census form. The Willises paid $55 per month for this place, on par with rents paid by neighbors in this upper-middle-class residential section. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1930; Census Place: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Oklahoma; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 0043; FHL microfilm: 2341652, accessed 10/05/2023.) In 1933, Margaret and Ralph had a house at 2551 NW 19th Street in Oklahoma City. (See Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, City Directory, 1933, p. 644.)

Her parents divorced on 04/07/1933 in Oklahoma City, and her father essentially abandoned his children. (See Ancestry.com, Source Information Ancestry.com. Web: Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, U.S., Divorce Index, 1923-1942 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013, accessed 10/05/2023.) Margaret did not have the means to provide for Beverly and Ralph G. Willis, and, like some single parents of the time, placed them in an orphanage for care. On 04/15/1940, Beverly and her brother lived in the Saint Joseph's Academy in Chickasha, OK. At the time, Saint Joseph's had only four boarders listed in the census. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1940; Census Place: Chickasha, Grady, Oklahoma; Roll: m-t0627-03295; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 26-11B, accessed 10/05/2023.)

The writer Nicolai Ouroussoff said in a biographical text on Willis of these six years spent in an orphanage: "...Under the “crushing weight of unfeeling institutions,” he wrote, she established a fierce independence as a means of survival, building on the self-reliance she developed in the oil fields." (See Jori Finkel, New York Times.com, "Beverly Willis, 95, Dies; Architect and Advocate for Women in the Field," published 10/02/2023, accessed 10/04/2023.)

After six years in an institution, her mother felt financially able to care for her two children. By 04/25/1940, Beverly lived with her mother and brother in a rented dwelling at 2921 NW 22nd Street in Oklahoma City, OK. Margaret paid $12 per month for this house. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1940; Census Place: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Oklahoma; Roll: m-t0627-03343; Page: 61A; Enumeration District: 78-39, accessed 10/05/2023.)

She and her brother Ralph g. Willis moved to Portland, OR, where they attended high school. and Beverly would later matriculate at Oregon State College in Corvallis. By the time that she had left for Oregon State, she had picked up many manual arts skills, including knowledge of welding and riveting as well as other metalcrafts and woodworking skills. (See Jori Finkel, New York Times.com, "Beverly Willis, 95, Dies; Architect and Advocate for Women in the Field," published 10/02/2023, accessed 10/04/2023.)

In 1950, her mother rented Apartment #C at 5057 North Vancouver Avenue in Portland, OR's Humboldt neighborhood, where she lived with Ralph G. Willis, as noted in the US Census. Ralph worked as a farm laborer at age 19 and his mother was a saleswoman in a department store. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Portland, Multnomah, Oregon; Roll: 1161; Page: 9; Enumeration District: 37-424, accessed 10/05/2023.)

In 1993, Willis had a residence at 11 Zinfandel Lane in Saint Helena, CA. (See Ancestry.com, Source Information Ancestry.com. U.S., Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 1 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010, accessed 10/05/2023.)

Willis passed away in Branford, CT, from complications due to Parkinson's Disease.

Parents

Her mother was Margaret Elizabeth Porter (born c. 1902 in MO), her father, Ralph William Willis (born 10/09/1893 in Custer County, NE-d. 06/24/1982 in Broken Bow, NE). She worked in various jobs, including as a nurse, while her father was an OK businessman focused on oil drilling machinery. Ralph W. Willis married three times during his life, but had little contact with Beverly during his lifetime.

Margaret Porter's mother was Amanda Leedham Comstock (born 06/1863-d. 10/27/1906 in MO), who passed away at 43 when Margaret was only four. She grew up without a mother between 10/27/1906 and 05/15/1917, when her father remarried.

In 1920, 18-year-old Margaret lived with her father and step-mother at 686 Elmore Street in Linn, OR. Her father was Abram "Arthur" Legran Porter (born 01/31/1873 in Independence, VA), who worked as a chipper in a Crown Willamette Company papermill. Her step mother was Ethel May Case (born 11/28/1886 in Corvallis, OR). (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1920; Census Place: South Lebanon, Linn, Oregon; Roll: T625_1496; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 299, accessed 10/05/2023.)

In 1940, Margaret worked as a nurse in a private hospital in Oklahoma City, OK. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1940; Census Place: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Oklahoma; Roll: m-t0627-03343; Page: 61A; Enumeration District: 78-39, accessed 10/05/2023.)

Beverly had a younger brother, Ralph Gerald Willis (born 06/10/1930 in Oklahoma City, OK-d. 02/02/1999)

Spouse

Willis wed Wanda Anna Bubriski (born 06/18/1958) on 12/06/2008 in Branford, CT. (See Ancestry.com, Source Information Ancestry.com. Connecticut, U.S., Marriage Index, 1959-2012 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2003, accessed 10/05/2023.)

Wanda's mother was Dagmar Neuburg Bubriski (born 1927-d. 05/10/2011 in Dalton, MA)

She attended Mt. Greylock High School in Williamstown, MA.

• Branford, CT (Architect's Death)
  Branford, CT 06405

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• Tulsa, OK (Architect's Birth)
  Tulsa, OK

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