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Willis E. Elliott

Craigville “Biblical Scholar in Residence”

Reverend Dr. Willis E. Elliott was a frequent Tabernacle preacher and chaired for many years the Religious Activities and Tabernacle Committee. With his wife, Rev. Loree Elliott, he was a year-round resident of “Craigville Heights,” where the couple designed and built their home.

For many years he functioned as an independent scholar, maintaining a large library of classical texts. Sometimes viewed as irascible and idiosyncratic, many neighbors knew this was part of Willis’s carefully crafted persona. He would freely admit that his Tabernacle sermons were long because he had too few occasions to preach and too much to say! Many a summer Sunday he would announce a four-point sermon and find a fourth or fifth point  40 minutes later. Willis loved after-sermon Tabernacle talkback sessions and the opportunity to correct or refute the preacher’s argument for the day.

Willis Elliott was a United Church of Christ pastor, teacher, lecturer, administrator, consultant, church executive, and the author of six books. His five earned degrees in religion include a PhD from the University of Chicago, where he was divinity research librarian. He taught in colleges, seminaries,  and universities–including the University of Hawaii, where he taught “The World’s Great Religions” and “Religion and the Meaning of Existence.” At the 1966 Triennium of the National Council of Churches, he was the interlocutor with evangelist Billy Graham.

Many Craigville residents were readers of Willis’s regular  “Thinksheets,” tightly packed pages with tiny margins sharing whatever happened to be on his mind. Topics ranged from obscure theological controversies to hot button social issues to Craigville history. They included poetry, hymns, cartons. Ottawa University, which awarded Willis his undergraduate degree and introduced Willis and Loree, maintains an archive of over 4,000 Thinksheets at 
https://ottawa.libguides.com/c.php?g=1069800.

You can see a sample in which he brings together Craigville fragments Craigville history at https://myottawa.ottawa.edu/ICS/icsfs/2848.pdf?target=1b191fb7-51ca-4fb3-8817-ad0bf3a6715d

As they aged, Willis and Loree relocated moved Loree’s home state of Nebraska. Willis died in 2014 at age 96.