Another Marietta High School graduate and hometown boy, Paul Willis, is
returning to his alma mater to teach. When the school year starts in August,
Willis will be re-entering the classroom as a brand new English teacher.
Willis, who is the son of Danny and Trisha Willis, grew up in Marietta. He was
raised in Marietta’s First Baptist Church and was a member of Boy Scouts of
America, Troop 32. He went to school in Marietta and graduated from MHS in
2002 and then earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University
of Oklahoma.
“After I earned my degree, I went to work in accounting,” he said, “and for 20
years I worked in everything from corporate to comptroller for a farm
cooperative.”
For years, Willis lived away from Marietta, and he and his wife Lori raised their
children, Jaidee and Eli. Then in 2022, during the covid epidemic, when he
could do his job remotely, they came back home where they’ve lived for four
years now.
“Lori has been substituting in the school system for two or three years now and
our kids were in school, so I knew there was a real need for teachers,”
explained Willis. “And that’s been in the back of my mind for a while, but I
thought it was just too crazy. But then it got to the point where I couldn’t ignore it
anymore.”
Since Willis and his family have been back in Marietta, he’s been helping with
the church youth group on Wednesday nights.
“Maybe that’s where the desire came from, but it got to the point where I
couldn’t ignore it anymore, so I applied at the school, thinking I’d just get my
foot in the door,” he said. “And then I got an interview. I told them, ‘I’m willing to
go where you need me.’”
And that was into the senior English classroom. Willis admits that – at first – the
idea was a little scary to him.
“But then I thought, ‘I had some really great English teachers here from middle
school on,’ so I can do this,” he stated.
Willis’s administration expects good things from him.
“Mr. Willis was a great student, and he’s had a successful career, but he’s ready
to come back home and invest himself here,” said Superintendent Brandi
Naylor. “Some of our best teachers share a similar story. They are at Marietta
because they love the school and the community and they are grateful for the
opportunity to pour themselves here into a place that gave them so much. We
believe that Mr. Willis will be just as successful as so many of them are.”
Willis knows that he’s in for some big changes, but believes it’s going to work
out for the best.
“I’m feeling really good about it. Nobody does this to get rich, but it boils down
to this: it’s a God thing. He’s taken care of us so I could make this move,”
explained Willis. “I know it’ll be different, but I have a sense of comfort about it.
I’m ready for school to start, ready for the first day.”