William D. Wittliff(1940-2019)
- Writer
- Producer
- Actor
Bill Wittliff was born in Taft, a small town in south Texas, in 1940.
After his parents divorced, he and his brother Jim moved with their
mother to Gregory, Texas, where Mrs. Wittliff ran a small telephone
office during World War II (these experiences provided the basis for
"Raggedy Man," Wittliff's feature film). Later, when his mother
remarried, the family moved to a ranch in Blanco, a rural community of
700 in the hill country of central Texas.
In 1964, shortly after graduating from the University of Texas,
Wittliff, with his wife Sally, founded a book publishing company, The
Encino Press, which specialized in regional material about Texas and
the Southwest. To date, Encino has won over 100 awards for quality of
design and content. The press operated out of a 19th-century Victorian
house in Austin in which O. Henry once lived and wrote
An accomplished photographer, Wittliff's photographs documenting the
life of the Mexican vaquero (taken 1969-71) have been exhibited in
numerous galleries and institutions throughout this country and in
Mexico, including the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, the Palacio de
Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and the Texas Capitol. In Japan, they
represented the United States during its bicentennial year. After
twenty years, the exhibit is still shown as a traveling display in the
U. S. and Mexico under the auspices of the Institute of Texan Cultures.
At 29, Wittliff was elected to the Texas Institute of Letters. He
served as president during 1974-78, and sat on the Executive Council
until 1990. In 1993, he was elected Fellow of the the Institute. He is
a member of the historic Texas Philosophical Society, the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts & Sciences; and he served for six years on the
Executive Board of Trustees of Robert Redford's Sundance Institute.
In 1985, with the donation of their lifelong collection of original
manuscripts and books, Bill and Sally founded the Southwestern Writers
Collection at Southwest Texas State University. Since that time the
collection has grown rapidly, supported by donors from all over the
country. It features original manuscripts by J. Frank Dobie, John
Graves, Larry McMurtry, Walter Prescott Webb, Bud Shrake, Larry L.
King, Horton Foote, Preston Jones, Sam Shepard, Willie Nelson, and many
others. It also includes paintings by numerous regional artists
including William Lester, Tom Lea, John Groth, Jerry Bywaters, Kermit
Oliver, Robert Wade. Expanding the scope of the current facility, in
1996 the Wittliffs endowed the Wittliff Gallery of Southwestern &
Mexican Photography which already includes works by Russell Lee, Manuel
Alvarez Bravo, Ansel Adams, Keith Carter, Henri Cartier Bresson, Lola
Bravo, Laura Gilpin, Edward Weston, Graciela Iturbide, Edward Curtis,
Nacho Lopez, Erwin E. Smith, Marco Antonio Cruz, Jim Bones, Paul
Strand, Mariana Yampolsky, and many others. Both collections are housed
in eight specially designed rooms and a large, chambered gallery on the
top floor of the Albert B. Alkek Library on the university campus.
The Wittliffs have two grown children and live in Austin, Texas.
After his parents divorced, he and his brother Jim moved with their
mother to Gregory, Texas, where Mrs. Wittliff ran a small telephone
office during World War II (these experiences provided the basis for
"Raggedy Man," Wittliff's feature film). Later, when his mother
remarried, the family moved to a ranch in Blanco, a rural community of
700 in the hill country of central Texas.
In 1964, shortly after graduating from the University of Texas,
Wittliff, with his wife Sally, founded a book publishing company, The
Encino Press, which specialized in regional material about Texas and
the Southwest. To date, Encino has won over 100 awards for quality of
design and content. The press operated out of a 19th-century Victorian
house in Austin in which O. Henry once lived and wrote
An accomplished photographer, Wittliff's photographs documenting the
life of the Mexican vaquero (taken 1969-71) have been exhibited in
numerous galleries and institutions throughout this country and in
Mexico, including the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, the Palacio de
Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and the Texas Capitol. In Japan, they
represented the United States during its bicentennial year. After
twenty years, the exhibit is still shown as a traveling display in the
U. S. and Mexico under the auspices of the Institute of Texan Cultures.
At 29, Wittliff was elected to the Texas Institute of Letters. He
served as president during 1974-78, and sat on the Executive Council
until 1990. In 1993, he was elected Fellow of the the Institute. He is
a member of the historic Texas Philosophical Society, the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts & Sciences; and he served for six years on the
Executive Board of Trustees of Robert Redford's Sundance Institute.
In 1985, with the donation of their lifelong collection of original
manuscripts and books, Bill and Sally founded the Southwestern Writers
Collection at Southwest Texas State University. Since that time the
collection has grown rapidly, supported by donors from all over the
country. It features original manuscripts by J. Frank Dobie, John
Graves, Larry McMurtry, Walter Prescott Webb, Bud Shrake, Larry L.
King, Horton Foote, Preston Jones, Sam Shepard, Willie Nelson, and many
others. It also includes paintings by numerous regional artists
including William Lester, Tom Lea, John Groth, Jerry Bywaters, Kermit
Oliver, Robert Wade. Expanding the scope of the current facility, in
1996 the Wittliffs endowed the Wittliff Gallery of Southwestern &
Mexican Photography which already includes works by Russell Lee, Manuel
Alvarez Bravo, Ansel Adams, Keith Carter, Henri Cartier Bresson, Lola
Bravo, Laura Gilpin, Edward Weston, Graciela Iturbide, Edward Curtis,
Nacho Lopez, Erwin E. Smith, Marco Antonio Cruz, Jim Bones, Paul
Strand, Mariana Yampolsky, and many others. Both collections are housed
in eight specially designed rooms and a large, chambered gallery on the
top floor of the Albert B. Alkek Library on the university campus.
The Wittliffs have two grown children and live in Austin, Texas.