BY LEIGH ANN COLEMAN ’09

Alum­nus William “Bill” Willis, Jr. ’66 and proud Wes­ley par­ent Kath­leen Jen­nings became the newest mem­bers of the Wes­ley Col­lege Board of Trustees in March. “I am elated that Ms. Jen­nings and Mr. Willis have joined Wesley’s Trustees. They bring tal­ents and expe­ri­ence that will com­ple­ment our Board as we con­tinue to grow as an insti­tu­tion. Each is artic­u­late, ener­getic, actively involved in the life of Delaware, and shares a vision for Wes­ley Col­lege. Their per­spec­tives and exper­tise will be help­ful as we shape Wes­ley for the future,” said Pres­i­dent Bill Johnston.

Willis is pres­i­dent of Willis Chevro­let, with deal­er­ships in both Smyrna and Mid­dle­town, Delaware. After grad­u­at­ing from Wes­ley Col­lege and West Vir­ginia Wes­leyan Col­lege and then serv­ing two years in the U.S. Army, Willis returned to work for the fam­ily busi­ness and make an impact in his com­mu­nity. He serves on the Board of Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware and is an active mem­ber of Asbury United Methodist Church. He has 40 years of ser­vice in the auto­mo­bile indus­try and is a for­mer pres­i­dent of the Delaware Auto­mo­bile and Truck Deal­ers Asso­ci­a­tion (DATDA). He also rep­re­sents Delaware as a mem­ber of the National Auto­mo­bile Deal­ers Asso­ci­a­tion (NADA).

Jen­nings is an attor­ney and part­ner at Bid­dle & Reath, LLP in Wilm­ing­ton, Delaware, prac­tic­ing crim­i­nal defense and reg­u­la­tory enforce­ment, among other fields of law. She was pre­vi­ously a part­ner at Wolf­Block, LLP as well as Oberly, Jen­nings & Rho­dunda P.A., both in Wilm­ing­ton. From 1993 to 1995, she served as chief deputy attor­ney gen­eral. Prior to that posi­tion, Jen­nings was act­ing state pros­e­cu­tor in the crim­i­nal divi­sion and deputy attor­ney gen­eral. An alum­nus of the Uni­ver­sity of Delaware and Vil­lanova Uni­ver­sity School of Law, Jen­nings is also a fel­low of the Amer­i­can Col­lege of Trial Lawyers. Her daugh­ter Rebecca is a cur­rent sopho­more at Wesley.

“Per­son­ally, I have always val­ued edu­ca­tion for its abil­ity to enrich our intel­lec­tual aware­ness of the world and to open doors for suc­cess in Amer­ica. The future of our youth, and for that mat­ter this coun­try, resides in the suc­cess of our edu­ca­tional sys­tem. There is no higher pri­or­ity,” said Jennings.