Harry R. Wilson Papers

Description:

This collection consists of the notes of a handwritten draft and tapes and transcripts concerning Harry Wilson's autobiography covering his life up to 1941. Also there are tapes and transcripts of interviews between Harry Wilson and Dennis Walle (archivist of the University of Alaska, Anchorage, in the 1980s) concerning his life and work. There are also copies of correspondence between Wilson and members of his family; drafts of a book he was writing; copies of articles and poetry he wrote; copies of World War I photographs; a copy of a family scrapbook; a college catalog and other papers concerning Lansing Community College; newspaper clippings about himself; and other papers. Harry Wilson was born in England in 1897. He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War I as a surgical orderly. He later transferred to the Flying Corps and served in France from 1916 to 1919 as a radial engineering specialist, occasionally flying reconnaissance as a gunner. After returning to England in 1919, he joined a group of engineers and then migrated to Canada. In 1923 he moved to Michigan and worked as a tool designer. He received his pilot's license in 1932. During World War II he was involved in military and civilian flight training programs at Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Mich.) where he helped organized the Department of Aviation Mechanics. After the war, Wilson helped set up aviation training for the eleventh and twelfth grades at Lansing Technical High School, and later participated in the organization of Lansing Community College. In 1963, he worked with the United Nations International Aviation Organization in Montreal on an aviation training program. In 1964, he worked on the development of Lansing Community College's aviation training program. He was also an author and wrote poetry and a number of magazine articles. He died in 1984 in Anchorage, Alaska. This collection was transferred to the Forest Parke Library & Archives at CADL in January, 2018.

Date Created:

[1915 TO 1983]

Data Provider:

Capital Area District Library (Lansing, MI). Forest Parke Library and Archives

Collection:

Harry R. Wilson Papers

Subject Topic:

Aviation, World War I, Engineers, Military, Poetry, Poets, Education, Scrapbooks, and Oral history

Language:

English

Rights:

In Copyright

URL:

http://cadl.pastperfectonline.com/archive/9E04CC1D-F849-470E-AF68-513271628091