Willis Grant

Obituary for Willis Grant

 Willis (Bill) Grant (1933-2025) joined his wife of 55 years, Christina, in the eternal on February 28. Bill was an amazing husband, father, brother, grandfather, friend, and pet grandparent. Bill engaged in the Blount County, TN community by actively participating in local writer’s groups, AARP, local politics, and volunteer causes, including education and law enforcement. Bill moved to Blount County in 2003 after spending nine years in Kentucky. He retired from a 43-year career in entertainment, most of which was spent in Los Angeles, CA. 

Bill was born in Chicago, IL to Samuel W. and Anna Shirley Goldberg. Bill left high school before graduation in 1949 to attend the University of Chicago at the age of 16. During this time, Bill’s dad had significant business commitments that took him away from his family so he could give his children a better life. Bill’s brother, Jerome, remembers that Bill was “BIG brother and sometimes surrogate mother and father.” When the family moved to Buffalo, NY, Bill transferred to the University of Buffalo, where he earned his Bachelor in Sociology. During a summer, Bill worked for the Smithsonian Institution doing archaeological work in South Dakota.

In his early career, Bill helped introduce audience testing, statistical process controls, and other quantitative tools to the advertising industry through roles at Young & Rubicam and NBC. He rose to the rank of Vice President during this time. 

In the 1960s, Bill brought quantitative tools and creative input to Hollywood where he worked for television studios Screen Gems and MetroMedia, Inc. on properties, including “I Dream of Jeannie,” “Bewitched,” and “The Monkees”. Bill’s work earned him recognition including being a member of a delegation of industry leaders led by Jack Webb who were invited to the White House by President Richard Nixon to consult on communication strategies that supported the President’s initiative to reduce Americans’ addictions to drugs. Bill and his wife Chris also were chosen to be part of the senior business leaders group from around the nation representing the US during the first visits of US industry to China in 1973.

When Bill’s career reached a fork in the road in 1977, he branched out and founded a family business called Research Frontiers Corporation (RFC). RFC served the television industry including Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc., and Marvel Productions. RFC was a boutique consulting company that linked the creatives with their audiences, and helped studios identify entertainment technology trends long before there were tools like the Internet that made this commonplace. 

Bill retired in 1995 and moved to Shelbyville, KY. He was an active member of the Shelbyville community by supporting local community development projects including Shelbyville Parks’ Family Activity Center, volunteering to teach advertising in the local schools, and playing an active role in the Louisville arts’ community. He became very active in his grandson’s life through kite flying, model building, and traveling. While in Kentucky, the Governor commissioned Bill as a Kentucky Colonel. 

Bill inspired people around him with his many hobbies including camping, traveling the world, magic (he was a magician member of the Academy of Magical Arts at the Magic Castle), kite flying, model building, investing, and writing. He was a Renaissance man who also was active in archery, painting, and target shooting. 

Bill loved spending time with his family and they remained his singular highest priority throughout his life. His children and grandchild remember many amazing adventures, life lessons, and “punny” jokes.

Bill is survived by his daughters Suzie Allard and Kitty McClanahan; son Jon Grant; brothers Jerome Goldberg and Russell Goldberg; his sisters Isabel Berkson and Nadine Goldberg; grandson Grant Allard; and his good friend Wayne (Asbury) Buchanan. 

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to either the University of Tennessee College of Communication and Information https://give.utk.edu/campaigns/42950/donations/new or Friends of the Smokies https://friendsofthesmokies.org/make-a-gift/ .