Mary Dibbern
Accompanist and Vocal Coach

In Memory of
Russell Howard Wilson
October 31, 1912—April 26, 2001

Russell was born in Eldorado, Oklahoma on October 31, 1912 to Carl Arthur Wilson and Elizabeth Elmira Setliff Wilson. He was the oldest of eight children. He always loved science and medicine . . . from caring for sick cats on his boyhood farm to teaching young medical students to running his private practice. He worked as a Geography and Math teacher to pay his way through school, and received the Bachelor of Science (1938) and the Doctor of Medicine (1940) from the University of Oklahoma. Following his internship in Seattle, Washington, with the United States Public Health Service, he served in the Coast Guard of the US Navy. He was County Health Officer of Kitsap County (Washington) from 1941 to 1944. Through his efforts, a beautiful new hospital known as the Franklin D. Roosevelt Hospital in Bremerton, Washington, was constructed by the Federal Government. He worked to obtain equipment for the hospital and for the County-City Public Health center, of which he was the head. During World War II, he was stationed in Egypt, Greece and Italy where he served in the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Reconstruction Medical School Hospitals. He received the Master of Science in Medicine (1950) and Doctor of Philosophy in Medicine (1953) from the University of Minnesota, specializing in Internal and Pulmonary Medicine. He was Associate Chief of Staff for Research at the Dallas Veteran’s Hospital, then Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School from 1954-1965. He was Chairman of The Physiology and Pharmacology Departments at the University of North Dakota Medical School at Grand Forks from 1965-1972. He then returned to Dallas, serving at the Dallas County Health Department and the Kaiser HMO. During his teaching and research career, he authored over one hundred articles for professional journals. He was responsible for the basic research in developing a vaccination for cancer. In later years, he was in private practice in Dallas and continued to see patients until a month before he died at the age of 88 years young. He was a member of the Grants Policy Committee under President Richard Nixon and the Coal Miner’s Health Research Committee under President Jimmy Carter. He was a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Chest Physicians, a member of the AMA, the American Physiological Society, the American Association for Cancer Research, the Central Society for Clinical Research and the Southern Society of Clinical Research. Russell died on April 26, 2001 of complications from chronic fibrosis of the lungs. He kept his charm, humor and intelligence until the moment he died, and has taken these with him to continue his contributions in another realm. He loved classical music and attended concerts of chamber music, ballet, opera and symphonic music regularly. He loved to travel and took many photographs, slides and films of his voyages and of his children. Russell was preceded in death by his first wife, Eleanor Josephine Gerst Wilson (1912-1952), and survived by his wife of forty-three years, Elizabeth Ann Johnson Wilson; his son John Barnard Wilson, his daughters Mary Elizabeth Wilson Dibbern and Anne Beatrice Wilson Gunthner and two grandsons, John Edward Wilson Gunthner and Andrew Russell Wilson Gunthner. A memorial service was held for him on April 30^th at the Ellis Chapel of Park Cities Baptist church where he was an active member of the Presley Sunday School Class. He is buried at the Sparkman-Hillcrest cemetery. His family has established a scholarship fund in his name to help needy students purchase medical textbooks. Contributions may be made for The Russell H. Wilson Scholarship Fund. Checks should be made out to UT Southwestern and mailed to The Russell H. Wilson Scholarship Fund, UT Southwestern, P.O. Box 910888, Dallas, TX, 75391-0888.

The Russell H. Wilson Memorial Organ Restoration Fund 
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