Portal:New York (state)/Selected biography/11
Willis “Will” Stephens Jr. (born 1955) was a politician who represented the 99th District in the New York State Assembly. After serving in the Assembly for twelve years, Stephens was defeated in the September 2006 Primary by Assemblyman Greg Ball and lost the Republican nomination. He was one of only three Republicans in the Assembly to be endorsed by Planned Parenthood.
Assemblyman Stephens represented the 99th District of New York which encompasses the municipalities of Patterson, Mahopac, Carmel, Southeast, Putnam Lake, and Brewster, in Putnam County; Yorktown, Lake Mohegan, Somers, and North Salem in Westchester County; and Pawling in Duchess County. His family held the seat nearly continuously for eighty years: his grandfather, D. Mallory Stephens, held this seat from 1926 to 1952; his father, Willis Stephens Sr., held the seat from 1952 to 1982; and Stephens himself served from 1994 to 2006. Stephens is a member of the law firm of Stephens and Charbonneau, in Brewster, New York. He was awarded a Juris Doctor degree from St. John's University school of Law in 1980 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University in 1977.