John Willardson

Year Inducted: 2024

John was born in Santa Monica, California, the youngest of two children. His sister still resides in California. Their childhood home was just five blocks from the ocean and one block from their elementary school. His father was a welder for 38 years at Douglas Aircraft and also taught welding at night at Santa Monica City College. John's mother, Vera Lindley, was born in Chatham County, NC but moved with her mother to Santa Monica as a child and graduated from high school there. She was an active volunteer, served as President of the PTA, President of the Ladies Auxiliary of Western Boys Baseball Association and attended all of John's football and baseball games and YMCA swim team meets. Sadly, she died when John was just 12, but her spirit of volunteerism had been firmly planted and has continued throughout John's life. Following 10th grade, John moved to Alamance County to live with relatives, attended Southern Alamance High School where he played football and baseball and was elected Senior Class President. Following graduation, he entered UNG-Chapel Hill, spent one year in Medellin, Colombia as part of a university exchange program, played baseball there and in 1968, graduated from UNC with a double major in Spanish and Political Science. He is fluent in Spanish. John and his wife Ann met at his fraternity when he returned to UNC from South America. They began dating in the spring of their senior year and they both graduated from UNC on June 3, 1968. Two weeks later, John was in Army basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana followed by AIT training as a medic and advanced training in physical therapy at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Six days after leaving AIT, John andAnn were married in Ann's hometown of Winston Salem. In 1974, John was discharged after completing his six-year Army Reserve obligation.

Following graduation from law school at UNC, John was hired as research assistant to a judge of the NC Court of Appeals and it was that judge, who urged him to apply for a position as an associate with the North Wilkesboro law firm of Moore & Rousseau when Gov. Robert Scott appointed the late Julius A. Rousseau, Jr. as a Superior Court Judge. Until that time, neither Ann nor John had ever been to Wilkes County. John interviewed with the firm, was offered a position and nine months later, in August, 1973, upon completion of his service at the NC Court of Appeals, they moved to Wilkes County where John began his law practice and also taught Business Law at Wilkes Community College. Their son, Drew, was born a few years later. Drew is also a UNC graduate and has his own independent law practice in Wilkesboro.

John is the Wilkesboro Town Attorney and also maintains an active general law practice. He has served as President of the Wilkes County and 34th Judicial District Bars, President of the North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys, President of the UNC Law Alumni Association, and as North Carolina's state representative to Chicago based ORI, the largest civil defense lawyer's organization in the world. Upon completion of his service as North Carolina's state representative to ORI, he was elected to a three-year term on the ORI Board of Directors as Mid-Atlantic States Regional Director for Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. In 2022, he completed 1O years of service on the North Carolina State Bar Council. He is currently serving a second term as a member of the Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism and while on that commission, has served under three different Chief Justices of the North Carolina Supreme Court. He also served six years on the board of directors of the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research, a non-partisan think tank in Raleigh and has completed a three year term on the board of directors of the NC Association of Municipal Attorneys.

Locally, John has served on the boards of several non-profits including the Wilkes Family YMCA, Wilkes ADAP, the Wilkes Art Gallery and Wilkes Babe Ruth League, Inc. where he coached youth baseball for approximately 12 years. He has been a member of the North Wilkesboro Kiwanis Club for more than 40 years and in 2023, had the honor to serve as President during the celebration of that club's 100th anniversary.

In 2010, John was inducted into the YMCA of Northwest North Carolina's Red Triangle Society for his leadership and dedication to the Wilkes Family YMCA. In 2015, he received a "Citizen Lawyer Award" from the North Carolina Bar Association for his service to this community and in 2016, he received the North Carolina Association of Defense Attorney's J. Robert Elster Professionalism Award.

John's interests include tennis, hiking, backpacking, flying, reading and Carolina athletics. He has been a licensed pilot since 1977 and is President and a charter member of Wilkes Flying Club, Inc. and a member of Lenoir Aviation Club.

The Willardson’s reside in Wilkesboro and are members of Saint Paul's Episcopal Church.