He was a native of Cincinnati^[1] and worked there with Tietig & Lee in 1911 and was listed with The Allyn Co. in 1914.^[2] Then he moved to Detroit where he "maintained a prestigious practice until his death".^[2] He "combined" Arts & Crafts with "a basis in Traditional styles" and was featured in a "highly-illustrated biography" by Thomas Brunk.^[2] Edsel and Eleanor Ford were "acquainted" with Willeke and he did residential design work for them, Roscoe B. Jackson, and Mrs. William Clay of Detroit in 1917 and 1918, as well as Henry Ford and his wife Clara.^[1] He was contracted to do the design work to house 3,500 Ford employees at "Fordson Village" until it was abandoned for the "much smaller" Molony site, with 12 house designs that were also by Willeke.^[1] He is also credited as the architect of Medbury's-Grove Lawn Subdivisions Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

• Brunk, Thomas W. (April–May 1987). "The Unassuming Architect". Heritage: A Journal of Grosse Pointe Life. 4 (2). ISSN 8756-2448.
• Thomas W. Brunk and Leonard Bernard Willeke Leonard B. Willeke, Excellence in Architecture and Design University of Detroit, School of Architecture Staff (Hardcover)
• Langsam (1997), 4, 93-94, 115-17, 129;