Memorial scholarship honors Sept. 11 victim

By Kelsey Proud

Published Sept. 11, 2007

The attacks in New York on Sept. 11, 2001 happened more than 1,000 miles away, but the effects still resonate here in Missouri.

John Charles Willett, a 1995 MU economics graduate from Walnut Shade, Mo., was killed while he worked in the World Trade Center for a subsidy of the Cantor Fitzgerald brokerage firm. Mr. Willett worked on the north tower's 101st floor, according to an April 2007 College of Arts and Science news release. He was 29 years old.

Mr. Willett's passing left his parents, Ron and Lucille Willett, grieving but determined to make something positive from their hardship. In 2006, they started the John Charles Willett Memorial Scholarship.

The scholarship is open to economics majors, said Anne Weller, College of Arts and Science Advancement Executive Director.

Ron and Lucille Willett said they did not know at first what they wanted to do to honor their son, but felt that setting up a scholarship in Willett's name would have been exactly what he would have wanted.

"He'd love it," Ron Willett said. "That's the main reason we thought of it. What would you do for the loss of a child? Not a lot of things you could do that would benefit so much, but this will go on for quite a few years, this scholarship fund."

He said Mr. Willett always had a passion for MU.

"He was really a Mizzou lover," Ron Willett said. "They said that when there was a Mizzou basketball or football game on TV, you definitely didn't want to be on the floor beneath John."

Mr. Willett also looked for connections to Missouri even after he graduated, Ron Willett said.

"One of the first things Mr. Willett did when he moved to New York was to start looking up Missouri alumni," Ron Willett said. "And the week before he was killed, he found out they were going to have Mizzou on Broadway from the school of Arts and Science."

According to Ron Willett, the show was already sold out. John was able to secure two tickets but was killed before the show.

While working in New York, Mr. Willett also took sailing lessons aboard the Pioneer, a ship build in the 1800s, for about nine months, Ron Willett said. When Ron and Lucille Willett visited New York for the Sept. 11 memorial services, they visited the Pioneer. Although the crew wasn't expecting them, they were flying a flag in honor of Mr. Willett.

The Pioneer's crew also named a small boat on the ship after him.

"I was overwhelmed, and so was Lucy," Ron Willett said. "For only having been there for about nine months, and this was two years after the tragedy, they still thought enough of him to name that boat after him."

MU senior Samantha Dalton received the John Willett scholarship in 2007 along with another student. Dalton is majoring in economics, finance and statistics.

"The amazing thing about gifts to higher education is that they are gifts of hope," Dalton stated in an e-mail. "As recipients, we really need to do as much as possible to perpetuate this positive cycle for others in the future and to make the world better together."