John Willis was an optimist who stood out among Optimists, and the Niles native is most assuredly still looking at the sunny side of life even now that he has gone on to things brightest of places in Heaven.

The military veteran and beloved volunteer who impacted people across the region passed away Sunday at the age of 67.

I met John through the Niles Noon Optimist Club a year or so ago. He welcomed me to the civic organization from the beginning. I was quickly impressed with his huge heart and unassuming intelligence, something that was no surprise considering he had read more than 2,000 books since January 1976 when he started keeping a meticulous record.

Despite his battle with health problems, John was kind enough to spend a fair amount of time on the phone with me in late January to share the story of how his reading list came about, a feat that astounded me and everyone else who knew about it but that John downplayed.

He wasn’t trying to set any type of record or impress anyone. He simply enjoyed reading and wanted to keep track so he didn’t pickup something twice.

“I’m interested in anything that is going to educate me a little more,” he told me at the time, having just finished book 2,222. “I am not so much looking for entertainment as education.”

Many Optimists, friends and family members shared their fond stories this week at the organization’s lunch meeting and the funeral services to honor him.

“I doubt another John Willis will come along in my lifetime. He did everything out of pure service and love. He gave his time selflessly always,” fellow Optimist Tom Majerek said Tuesday, adding that John’s commitment extended to countless groups and organizations including Lake Michigan College, Wesley United Methodist Church and the Whirlpool Corporation, just to name a few.

“He never expected or strived for awards. I pushed him for awards and he would always say, ‘My future doesn’t depend on that.’ I always got a laugh out of that,” Majerek said. “He just showed up and did it because he loved it.”

Longtime friend Diane Bass dug up some photos of John through the years and shared them with fellow Optimists Tuesday.

“From early morning to late at night, and any day of the week, John Willis did it all — he just didn’t always let you get a picture of him,” she wrote in an email to the club. “Here’s a few of the Race Man, the Helium Man, the Relay for Life Man, the Baseball Skills Man, the Notre Dame Concession Man and even a picture of John as a more-than-6-foot-tall elf. … Everything about him really was about ‘Bringing Out the Best in Kids’ and himself. A beautiful person went to Heaven. God rest his Optimistic soul.”

Although the fantasy novel “A Dance with Dragons” from the popular Game of Thrones series probably never made John’s reading list, author George R.R. Martin wrote in it that, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. … The man who never reads lives only one.”

John Willis experienced countless lives through what he read. He enriched the lives of thousands of others through what he did.

 

Michael Caldwell is the publisher of Leader Publications LLC. He can be reached at (269) 687-7700 or by email at mike.caldwell@leaderpub.com.