Dr. Gordon Wilson

Dr. Gordon Wilson

            It was 1955. I had just been released from the Navy and was about to enroll at Western Kentucky University.  I walked into Cherry Hall not knowing a soul, and feeling lost.  I walked from the front door to the main hall and started to turn right. After all I didn’t know anywhere else to try.  As I turned at the hall I noticed an open door.  No, I noticed where a door should have been but there was none there. I looked in and saw an older man sitting at his desk. He quickly looked up and greeted me, asking my name and wanting to know if he could help me.  When I told him I wanted to register he got up and took me to where I needed to go and helped me fill out the necessary forms.  He wished me well and went back into his office.  That was the only time I ever talked to Dr. Gordon Wilson.

            Until much later.  About three years in fact. I asked someone I thought would know just who Dr. Wilson was.  I was told that he was the head English Department teacher and that he loved everybody.  He wanted anyone to feel like he could talk to him at any time so he had the janitor to take his office door down.  He welcomed anyone and everyone at any time even though he was probably the busiest teacher in our college.

            I began to remember the brief visit I had with him.  He had asked me a lot of personal questions.  I thought at the time that he needed that information in order to help me enroll but everyone I talked to about that informed me that he did everyone like that.  My college roommate, who had been in one of his classes challenged me to test him. So I did.  I enrolled in one of his English classes, which turned out to be the best class I took while I was at Western.

            The first day I entered his class he greeted me at the door (or where it was supposed to be) and called me by name.  Wow!  He remembered my name after talking to me very briefly nearly three years before.  But that was not all. He remembered where I was from, that I had been in the Navy, what I had planned to major in, etc. He almost scared me.  I hoped he didn’t know a lot of my past antics.  Or recent ones for that matter.  But if he did he never mentioned it.

            His class was remarkable.  Each day he always called roll.  When the student answered he greeted him a good morning calling him by name. And each of us learned right away that during each class every student would be called on to answer a question.  He was organized and expected all of us to be as well. We were on time for class, too.  And we never missed a class, either.  He didn’t allow that.  But really nobody wanted to miss a class or be late because Dr. Wilson kept it a fun learning experience. 

            I do not have room to share all the things he taught us. Suffice it to say that if I use only a fraction of what I learned in his class that I could deem myself a well educated man. And he never once indicated that he wanted anything in return.

            Thank you very much, Dr. Gordon Wilson!  You saw the good in everything. I could only hope to do so partly as well.