The Post Bids Farewell to Greg Willis

By MATTHEW MEYER | Reporter

Pacific Palisades, the Palisadian-Post and this reporter lost a dear friend on Sunday, Sept. 3, when Greg Willis passed away from liver cancer at the age of 63.

The first time I met Greg, he padded down Entrada Drive barefoot to meet me outside his apartment, his eternally cheerful pup Vinny bounding by his side.

We walked on the beachfront and talked about the benches he refurbished along the walkway there, out of his own pocket and of his own volition.

Later he invited me upstairs and we sat talking for hours about his days as a truck driver for films as notable as “Pulp Fiction” and musical events as iconic as Live Aid, while Vinny lay panting by our sandy feet.

In the year of friendship that followed, I documented Willis’ painstaking efforts to root out a rotting tree stump on Sunset Boulevard, and I reported with bemused admiration as he repeatedly eased his aching bones into Rustic Creek Storm Channel to rescue trapped ducklings with his bare hands.

I also talked him out of storming the office of a public official or two when he felt that he and his community were being slighted.

Willis had little patience for bureaucracy; especially when he’d determined (often correctly) that he could do the job better himself.

In a life hard lived, he made his share of mistakes, including those that took their toll on the liver that ultimately failed him.

But in the Palisades he left a legacy of simple works—beautification projects in both Santa Monica Canyon and The Village that made his hometown a more pleasant place.

Most recently, he nearly single-handedly planted a tree at the site he excavated on Sunset Boulevard.

Willis dedicated the tree to Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce fixture Arnie Wishnick, a man he revered.

Now Wishnick would like to dedicate the tree to him.

“Greg Willis was one in a million,” he told the Post. “A ‘doer,’ a worker, a man who took pride in what he did.”

Wishnick and I sat brainstorming a fitting plaque for a man who hated to make a fuss.

“Greg Willis—He Did It His Way,” we finally determined.

He certainly did.

Willis will have a memorial service at Harvelle’s Blues Club on Saturday, Sept. 30, at 5 p.m.

Vinny has been adopted by a loving family from Simi Valley. Willis’ cats, Steve and Bruno, are currently boarded at Pacific Palisades Veterinary Center and are available for adoption.