Former Zale Corp. Exec Willis Cowlishaw Dies

By Rob Bates | March 27, 2025

Willis Cowlishaw, the longtime head of Zales’ guild division and later an industry consultant, died on March 16. He was 98.

Cowlishaw was born in Wolco, Okla., on June 18, 1926. After high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served as a seaman first class-gunner’s mate on the carrier USS Essex during the final year of World War II.

After the war, he earned a degree in horology from Hardin Junior College and got a job at one of the first Zales stores, in Tulsa. There, he worked the sales floor by day and repaired watches at home by night. He was eventually promoted to an executive position and moved to the Dallas area.

For two decades, Willis led Zale Corp.’s guild division, which consisted of higher-end jewelry stores that Zales acquired and operated under established names. Working under the company’s founder, Morris Zale, the division expanded to more than 200 stores across the U.S.

After leaving Zales in 1984, Cowlishaw served as an industry consultant, at one point traveling to Poland to help jewelers make the transition to capitalism.

In 1996, former JCK editor-in-chief George Holmes thanked Cowlishaw as one of the many people who offered “help and good advice when I’ve called on them.”

An online bio said that Cowlishaw, a devout Christian, “lived his faith every day, carrying out the command to love your neighbor with each person he encountered, in every walk of life. Willis never met a stranger. Across a jewelry counter, at the office, on the golf course, or over a sandwich, Willis was fully present and ready to listen to anyone. His kind and thoughtful words turned around many lives.”

His is survived by his wife of 54 years, Patricia; two sons; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his first wife, Wanda.

Memorial gifts may be made in Cowlishaw’s name to the Women’s Council of the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden, the American Cancer Society, or the charity of your choice.

Photo from LinkedIn