page_title: Winston E. Willis
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Winston E. Willis / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Personal Scrapbook Photo
context_page_description: Winston Earl Willis is a former American real estate developer who established his business in Cleveland, Ohio during the early 1960s. He created University Circle Properties Development, Inc., which owned real estate parcels in Cleveland and was the largest employer of black people in that part of the country. Under UCPD at East 105th and Euclid, upwards of 23 businesses operated simultaneously. In the 1970s and 80s Willis ran afoul of tax and other laws and lost his properties to seizure in 1983. His ongoing legal battles with the city of Cleveland over ownership of his lands spans several decades, including his 2007 petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.
context_section_description: Willis was born in Montgomery, Alabama, the third of the five children of Clarence C. Willis and his wife, Alberta Frazier Willis, both natives of Montgomery.  The Willis children attended St. Jude Educational Institute at the 36-acre (150,000 m²) City of St. Jude. In the fall of 1954, when Winston was 14, the Willis family settled in Detroit. Winston's father's years of experience as a carpet installer for the Montgomery Fair department store enabled him to find suitable employment and settle his family into a quiet neighborhood on the West side near Dearborn. There, Winston created, published and delivered his own neighborhood advertising newspaper, the Western Detroit Shopping News. His high school career at Chadsey High School was  uneventful – and brief.
caption: Winston, Age 9
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