Willis M. Anderson

Willis Martin "Wick" Anderson (November 3, 1928 – April 23, 2002) was an American lawyer and politician.

He was elected to the Roanoke, Virginia city council as a Democrat in 1958 and, two years later, became the youngest mayor in the city's history. In 1963, he ran for the Roanoke City seat in the Virginia House of Delegates being vacated by Kossen Gregory, and he was elected alongside Republican incumbent M. Caldwell Butler. In August 1972, Richard H. Poff, member of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia's 6th congressional district, resigned after being appointed by Governor Linwood Holton to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court of Virginia. Both Anderson and Butler decided to forgo reelection, instead seeking their respective parties' nominations to succeed Poff in Congress. Butler defeated Anderson in both the special election to complete Poff's unfinished term and the regular election to a full term. When Butler retired a decade later, Anderson again sought the seat but was bested at the party's nomination convention by Jim Olin. Anderson defected to the Republican Party in 1984 and later unsuccessfully ran for mayor against David A. Bowers.