Passing the Torch: In Appreciation of Jerry Willis

Jerry Willis was the founder and originator of the core concepts underlying both the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) and the Journal of Technology and Teacher Education (JTATE). As computers found their way into K-12 schools in increasing numbers, Jerry conceived the need for a professional society to support teacher education faculty preparing teachers to use these emerging technologies. At one time Jerry studied for the ministry and holds an implicit belief in the perfectibility of mankind. The perspective of an earned doctorate in psychology and the cognitive sciences led him to believe that technology could provide a vehicle for school reform. However, Jerry believed that it was important for SITE to be ecumenical, serving as a common meeting ground for technological philosophies and ideologies of all types. Aside from an unwavering belief in the potential for human improvement, he has one other chief asset--an inability to recognize that extraordinary visions may not be possible. This tendency to tilt at windmills that characterizes many entrepreneurs, founders, and early adopters is perhaps Jerry's defining characteristic. As Tom Carroll, director of the "Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology" program notes, "The Wright Brothers launched their first plane and then learned to fly it." Jerry wholeheartedly subscribes to this method of innovation, although he phrases it as, "We don't need no stinkin' badges." Accordingly, once Jerry ascertained that a professional society was needed to support teacher educators using technology, he did not conduct a poll or survey, form an organizing committee, or conduct a feasibility study. He simply announced that he was forming a new society and that anyone who showed up would become a founding member. He and his wife at that time, Dee Anna, who contributed in equal measure to the success of the enterprise, undertook the organizational responsibility and invested the sweat equity required to make the enterprise a success. During the first years of SITE, Jerry was an ever-present force, attending sessions and facilitating visions. Members with exciting ideas or concepts whom Jerry encountered were likely to receive a field promotion and often found themselves chairing a committee or task force to immediately implement their idea. Jerry particularly likes to attend the sessions of the annual SITE conference learning about innovations and promising ideas. He has often approached presenters afterwards asking, "Have you considered developing this idea and submitting it for publication?" This approach has meshed well with Jerry's vision of SITE as an open society in which new ideas can be nurtured and supported. Jerry himself recognized the limits to his organizational capacity. The establishment of a partnership with the Association for the Advancement of Computers in Education to provide the administrative infrastructure allowed Jerry to focus on academic development. As the organization matured, Jerry recruited other officers such as Ann Thompson (third SITE president), whose interests included both long-range strategic vision and short-range organizational detail. …