Arthur Willis, 92, Spent Summers on East Chop

Arthur Hunt Willis died on Dec. 21 in Rye, N.Y. He was 92. Arthur was born in Washington D.C. on March 3, 1912, the youngest of four children born to Henry Parker Willis, a prominent economist, academic and presidential advisor, and Rosa Brooke Willis. He attended the Collegiate School in New York, received a B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1934 and a M.S. from Columbia School of Business in 1936 and later undertook further studies in economics at Trinity College in Cambridge, England.

He worked as a security analyst at Irving Trust Co. in New York city from 1936 to 1941. In 1941 he began a 15 year term at the New York Federal Reserve Bank rising to be secretary of the bank from 1953 to 1956. In 1956 he joined the former Discount Corporation of New York where he was senior vice president when he retired in 1972.

Arthur was a devoted and loving husband throughout his 62 year marriage to Barbara Phillips Willis until her death on May 27, 2001. They raised their family in Scarsdale, N.Y. and lived there until 1999. Arthur and Barbara spent many summers in Oak Bluffs where they met in 1932 and maintained a home on East Chop for many years and later had a home in New London, N.H.

Arthur was a true gentleman and a kind and generous member of his community in which he did volunteer work for the Red Cross and the Scarsdale historical society. He was an active member of vestry of the Church of Saint James the Less in Scarsdale and the Old Guard of Westchester. His hobbies included woodworking and fishing.

Arthur is survived by his four children, Suzanne Willis of Garrison, N.Y., Pamela Willis Savarese of Scarsdale, Claire Willis of Concord and John Parker Willis of San Francisco, Calif.; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. In his final years he was lovingly cared for by Sampson Owusu at the Osborne Home in Rye.