WEST POINT, NEW YORK – Civilian Marksmanship Program board member MAJ (R) William H. Willoughby will be recognized by the West Point Association of Graduates on 22 May when he joins the ranks of the prestigious U.S. Military Academy Distinguished Graduate Award recipients for his lifelong commitment to the mission of the institution which has educated, trained and inspired U.S. Army officers since its founding in 1802.
Willoughby, 74, of Concord Township, Ohio, is a member of the Academy’s Class of 1960, and will join four other honorees who will receive medals in recognition of their support of their alma mater through their life works. Fellow inductees are LTG (R) Henry J. Hatch (’57), GEN (R) Crosbie E. Saint (’58), GEN (R) Narciso L. Abaya (’71) and LTG (R) William J. Lennox (’71). The ceremony will be conducted on the grounds of the historic military institution located 50 miles north of New York City.
Created in 1992, the West Point Association of Graduates has recognized 93 graduates prior to this year’s class. The Distinguished Graduate Award “is given to graduates of the Academy whose character, distinguished service and stature draw wholesome comparison to the qualities that West Point strives for, in keeping with its motto: Duty, Honor, Country.”
The 2012 class joins past Distinguished USMA graduates that include the likes of WWII GEN Matthew B. Ridgway (’17), Desert Storm GEN (R) H. Norman Schwarzkopf (’56), Astronaut COL (R) Frank Borman (’50), Secretary of Defense GEN (R) Alexander M. Haig, Jr. (’47), Vietnam War Commander GEN (R) William C. Westmoreland (’36), Astronaut MG (R) Michael Collins, USAF (’52), Astronaut Dr. Buzz Aldrin (’51), Vietnam Air Cavalry LTG Harold “Hal” Moore (’45), and Duke University head basketball coach Michael W. Krzyzewski (’69).
“It is truly an honor to be the first of my West Point Class of 1960 to be nominated to the Academy’s Distinguished Graduate Award recipients,” Willoughby said upon word of the announcement
Willoughby reflected on his USMA experience and said his Academy preparation and subsequent military experience made his transition into civil life much easier.
“I was a company commander at age 26 and that’s something I wouldn’t attain in civil life until age 40. When I came out of the service, it wasn’t anything new or different for me because I had already been there,” he said.
“The curriculum at West Point tests both the left and right halves of the brain,” he said. “It combines mental and physical training along with ethics and personal organization skills. When you combine all those things with a broad curriculum, you come out of the experience fully challenged, mentally and physically.
“The Academy experience was a test of keeping a lot of balls in the air at one time – challenges that require some pretty tough decision-making. A West Point education will find your weak spots,” he recalled with admiration.
At West Point, Willoughby joined the pistol team after injuring his knee. It gave him an opportunity to rehabilitate but also gave him outstanding marksmanship experience under “one of the greatest pistol coaches in the nation,” Army MSG Heulet L. “Leo” Benner, who is a Camp Perry legend. MSG Benner was a multiple national pistol champion and coached the pistol team at West Point for six years prior to retirement. He died at age 82 in 1999.
Willoughby was nominated to the Distinguished Graduate Award program by his USMA ’60 classmates. In a letter of support of Willoughby’s nomination from U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the senator wrote:
“My staff and I have had the pleasure of working with Bill Willoughby for more than 18 years on issues and programs benefitting Ohio’s military community. His advice and guidance has always been helpful, and we commend him for his dedication and commitment to the men and women who serve in the United States Army and to their families...
“I am honored to support Bill Willoughby’s nomination for the 2012 Distinguished Graduate Award. He is an outstanding individual who continues to serve his country and his community with great distinction,” Senator Brown wrote.
In February, Willoughby was honored by the Joint Veterans Commission of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, as the 2011 Outstanding Veteran of the Year. The following excerpt was taken from his award nomination:
“William H. Willoughby, Jr. is a distinguished battle-tested soldier and true patriot who loves his country, never stopped serving it and has supported its interests in both the public and private sector.
“Bill’s life is exemplary, with over half a century of dedicated service; he continues to leave an indelible mark on all around him through the countless selfless missions that he has undertaken as a soldier, family man, entrepreneur, community leader and citizen. He lives and leads true to the West Point motto of duty, honor, country.”
As a “military brat,” Willoughby followed his family to Japan, Washington, D.C., and many other locations. His father retired as a colonel and William enlisted in the Army, attended the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School and was graduated from West Point in 1960.
After West Point, his military expertise and career grew with training at the Infantry, Airborne, Ranger and Special Forces qualification schools. He served two tours in Vietnam, one as an A Team Leader with the 5th Special Forces Group between 1965 and 1966 and in 1968 as Battalion Operations Officer (S3) with the 2nd Battalion 2nd Infantry 1st Infantry Division.
It was there he earned the Silver Star, Soldier’s Medal, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Army Commendation, Air Medal and Combat Infantryman’s Badge. He was severely wounded in combat in November 1968. While convalescing from his combat injuries and still in the military, he completed a Masters Degree in business administration at Tulane University. He was medically retired in 1971.
Recognizing his plan of a long military career had ended; he took his determination and skills to the private sector and his community and landed a job in quality control and later as plant manager in a manufactured housing enterprise. He moved onto heavy manufacturing where he found his niche. After rising to plant manager at Parker Hannifin in Cleveland, Ohio, he rose to the president’s office at Pettibone Ohio Corporation, a firm which made railroad components.
When the economy soured, he took the opportunity to start Cleveland Track Material, Inc. (CTM) with five employees. Located in the impoverished inner-city, he built his workforce by hiring local residents, legal immigrants and long-term unemployed – some with criminal backgrounds. With strong family values and determination, Willoughby built the company into a rail business that was selected in 2002 to design and fabricate track products used to rebuild and reopen the transportation hub in the World Trade Center site.
By 2007 the company had absorbed the assets of a pair of his primary competitors, one in inner-city Memphis, Tennessee. Soon his workforce grew to 260 employees. CTM, eventually operated by Willoughby’s son, Bill, was recognized as one of the “100 Best Places to Work in Northeast Ohio” for three consecutive years and it has won multiple business enterprise awards in the process for excellence in productivity and community support.
Willoughby’s passion for the military never waned and he remained connected with his West Point and Army roots. In 1979 he was appointed West Point Admissions Coordinator for Northeast Ohio and in 2010 assumed the same role statewide. His efforts in advising candidates, families, schools and congressional offices resulted in the admission of more than 650 young men and women to West Point.
He was instrumental in bringing four new junior ROTC units to the Cleveland schools and maintained his military connections with five appointments as Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army. He developed a powerful program that brought together the Army Recruiting Command, Reserve Officer Training Command, JROTC, Army National Guard, Army Reserve and veterans groups for the betterment of the local community. As a result, Willoughby earned the U.S. Army Outstanding Civilian Service Medal in 1997. He was inducted into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame in 2008.
Willoughby says he cherishes his family and the community’s youth. He has served as Cub Scout master, troop committee chairman and on the Boy Scout Executive Board. He shares with and credits his successes to his wife Ann. The Willoughby family has three grown children and seven grandchildren. Their daughter Mary, a Notre Dame electrical engineering graduate, resides in Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband and three children. Their oldest son Bill lives in Cleveland Heights,
Ohio, with his wife and child. Their youngest son John lives in Minneapolis,
Minnesota, with his wife and three children.
Their son Bill is a graduate of West Point and served 11-plus years of active duty including a year and a half service in the Middle East. He is a retired lieutenant colonel and is currently Vice President and chief operating officer of CTM. Son John is a Harvard College graduate with an ROTC commission in the Army Corps of Engineers. He served in combat in Somalia in the summer of 1993.
Willoughby’s memberships and community support include the West Point Association of Graduates, Special Forces Association, the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division Association, Disabled American Veterans, American Legion, Cleveland City Club, American Railway Engineering Maintenance Association and Judge Sarah J. Harper Children’s Library.
To view William H. Willoughby’s nomination letter to the West Point Society’s Distinguished Graduate Award committee, log onto
http://usma60.com/DGANOMS/DGANominatingLetterWilloughby(Final).pdf.
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