Spotlight on a Sponsor:  Willis + Tierney

Soul.

That’s what makes the Marblehead community different. Just ask Bill Willis, a lifelong resident who met his wife at Marblehead High School, raised his three children in town, owns a wildly successful real estate business in the community, and whose new grandson is now a ‘header’.

“It’s a wonderful community of people,” Willis says. “It’s a fabulous place to raise children. It offers a lot of different things to a lot of different people. But I personally think it goes beyond the physical beauty of the town, which is kind of self apparent. This town has a soul, and you can feel it.”

Willis and his partner Christine Tierney of Willis + Tierney are a pretty impressive duo in all the ways that are ‘kind of self apparent,’ too. Both are award winning realtors, having racked up just about every accolade they can in their field. Willis is responsible for the highest sale ever recorded to date in Swampscott, both have earned the International Presidents Elite Award for real estate, and have been named top real estate producers by Boston Magazine multiple times. Though Willis is a native New Englander and Tierney is from Minnesota and they are from different generations, they agree that their partnership works because they share a deep conviction about service to their community.

“It isn’t just about helping people match to a house where they want to raise their kids and it isn’t simply about the money,” Tierney explains. “I always felt if you did the right thing and you took care of your clients and you helped people, the money would always follow.” She says she has been fortunate enough to be successful, but that is not her main focus. “When Bill and I decided to become a team we did so because we’re so like-minded and really are here to be of service. Truly, as cheesy as that sounds, we just want to help people.”

It’s not surprising, then, that when the Willis + Tierney team was approached to sponsor Marblehead Counseling Center’s Amy Saltz Community Champions Award, Tierney jumped right in, knowing how critical mental health issues are today. In fact, according to a large-scale 2023 study co-led by Harvard Medical School and the University of Queensland one out of every two people in the world will develop a mental health disorder in their lifetime. Tierney understands it’s a massive and growing problem, and it’s one that she understands. “I have struggled with anxiety since I was in high school,” Tierney says, admitting that talking about mental health issues can be difficult for people. It has taken her a long time to open up about her own. “You didn’t talk about it in 1992, it was such a shameful thing,” she recalls. She feels very lucky to have had a mother who understood that Tierney was struggling, and who got her the help she needed. Fear of talking about it is something she would like to see change. “Any way that I can support or remove the stigma from (mental health issues), I’m happy to, because I just don’t think there’s enough out there.”

Tierney says she lets potential buyers know about the many health and wellness options in the area, including Marblehead Counseling Center. “It’s such an amazing resource, but I feel that people don’t really know enough about it or they don’t think of it.” She hopes sponsorship of the Amy Saltz Community Champions Award, which recognizes the many local residents who give their time and energy and financial resources so generously to make the community better, will remind people of just what a treasure they have on the North Shore.

For his part, Willis says his feelings about the ‘soul’ of Marblehead comes from living in a town that bands together and supports each other in all different ways.  “A lot of what I do personally to give back to the community is behind the scenes,” he says, and for a guy whose family of five rides the 200 mile Pan-Mass challenge every year, he’s not kidding about the lengths he’ll go to in order to help. Willis says that the reason Marblehead feels so special to him is that so many residents have the same approach to helping one another.  “I’m not a materialistic person so you know it’s my long point that if you’ve been blessed enough to do well in life, I personally think you’re compelled to share and give back and do as much as you can to help others. I really think that’s what this whole human experience is all about.”

Like Tierney, Willis believes shining a spotlight on the issues of mental health is critical. Forty years ago, Willis’s brother committed suicide. He says he’s been in Marblehead so long that the subject doesn’t come up much anymore, but the tragedy is part of who he is. “On a personal level, it’s unbelievably scarring,” he explains. “There was no mental health counseling, and we didn’t know as a family that he was suffering.” Willis says that his family was a long-term Marblehead family, and the response from the community was overwhelming. “They really circle the wagons, when, God forbid, something tragic happens. Anyone who has been around Marblehead a long time certainly knows our family story. But you cannot fathom what Marblehead did to support us.” Willis says the way the town came together after the tragedy has left him with a deep appreciation for Marblehead, and the importance of being in service to others.

For the past 55 years, Marblehead has been fortunate enough to have mental health services right here in town. But Tierney says she is especially gratified that Marblehead Counseling Center also services nearby North Shore communities, many of which have fewer economic advantages. She says that reaching clients who may not be able to get care for financial reasons is critical. “I think we sometimes forget about the people who can’t afford all the things they need,” she says. “One of the reasons I wanted Willis + Tierney to sponsor the Amy Saltz Community Champions Award was the MCC’s support system for people who need help and who might not be able to go out of pocket to get it.”

The impetus to give back is clearly a theme at Willis + Tierney, one that brings deep satisfaction to its principals. It’s one that would have made the nominative Amy Saltz very happy, too. The Amy Saltz Community Champions Award is named for the late Amy R. Saltz of Marblehead. After surviving a devastating suicide attempt during adolescence, Amy turned to the Marblehead Counseling Center for help and support over many decades. She devoted her life to the quest for healing and paying it forward with gratitude, a theme the Willis + Tierney team understand as well.

“I think when I was young, personally, I had the life attitude that how can one person possibly make a difference in a world of eight billion people?” Willis says. “And now I’m 180° on the other side of that. I’m like oh no, no, no, that’s the wrong answer. One person can make all the difference. If you get enough people on the planet that feel that way, well guess what? You can really make a change.”