Willis David Gradison, Jr. (nicknamed "Bill") was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on December 28, 1928, and attended public schools in Cincinnati during his elementary and high school years. He graduated fromYale University in 1949 and received an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School in 1951 and then a doctor of commercial science from Harvard in 1954.

Gradison worked in a number of different jobs during the 1950's, including having a private law practice and working as a stock investment broker. From 1953-1955, he worked as the assistant to the Under Secretary of the United States Treasury. He then worked as assistant to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare from 1955-1957. In 1961, Gradison became a member of the Cincinnati City Council and continued to hold that position until 1974.

In 1971, Gradison was elected Mayor of Cincinnati. He then ran for Congress in 1974 as a Republican against Democratic candidate Thomas Luken, and won election as the Representative for the 1st District of Ohio. He won the three succeeding elections as well. In 1982, because of the renumbering of Ohio's first and second districts after the 1980 census, the first and second district exchanged their representatives, thus making Gradison the representative for the 2nd District of Ohio in the Ninety-eighth Congress. This caused the 2nd District to again be represented by a Republican since former Democratic Representative Luken then represented the 1st District instead. Gradison won re-election for the next four terms as well. His time in office marked another long stretch of Republican representation in the 2nd District.

While in office, Gradison served for a time as the Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee. He was active in working to improve health issues, and served as vice chairman of the Bipartisan Commission on Comprehensive Health Care (also known as the Pepper Commission). Gradison further served as a member of the Pew Health Professions Commission, a member of Women's Health Commission of the Commonwealth Fund, and the vice chair of the Commonwealth Fund's Task Force on Academic Health Centers.

Though Gradison did win the 1992 Congressional election, he resigned from office on January 31, 1993 to become the president of the Health Insurance Association of America.

From 1999 through 2002, Gradison was senior public policy counselor with Patton Boggs. In 2002, the Securities and Exchange Commission selected him as a founding member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, established by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. In 2005, he was named acting chairman of the oversight board, and served as such until July, 2006.

Sources:
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Wikipedia
Cincinnati Business Journals-Business Courier
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission news release, 2002-153
About the PCAOB-bios of board members
Picture taken from PCAOB website: http://www.pcaobus.org/About_the_PCAOB/The_Board/Bill_Gradison.aspx

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