Dr. William P. Wilson

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

William P. Wilson, M.D.

William Preston Wilson was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on November 6, 1922. Educated in North Carolina public schools, he attended Duke University where he received a B.S. in Chemistry in 1943. Dr. Wilson received his M.D. degree from the same institution in 1947, and interned at the Gorgas Hospital in the Panama Canal Zone. After this, he entered a residency in psychiatry at Duke University. He trained in child psychiatry, adult psychiatry and neurology. At the end of his clinical training he went to McGill University and the Montreal Neurological Institute to receive further training in basic and clinical neuroscience.

Dr. Wilson began his faculty career at Duke University when he became an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in 1955. In 1958, he accepted a position at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, to become Associate Professor of Psychiatry and the Director of Psychiatric Research. He returned to Duke in 1961 to become Head of the Division of Biological Psychiatry. In 1964, he was appointed Professor of Psychiatry. He resigned the post of division head in 1983. From 1961 to 1981, Dr. Wilson directed the electroencephalographic laboratories at Duke Medical Center. He retired from Duke in 1984. At present, he is Professor of Pastoral Counseling at Houston Graduate School of Theology (in High Point, North Carolina) and is the Director of the Institute of Christian Growth (a branch of New Directions International) including its clinical practice, Life Way Mental Health Associates.

He is married to the former Elizabeth Taylor of Raleigh, North Carolina. They have five adult children: Bill is a computer scientist, Ben is a civil engineer, Karen is a nurse, Tammy is a housewife and Bob is an auto mechanic. Dr. Wilson also enjoys 16 grandchildren.

He is the author of 166 scientific articles and regularly contributes to several religious newsletters and magazines. He has edited two books and co-authored a book with Kathryn Slattery, The Grace to Grow, The Power of Christian Faith in Emotional Healing. The first printing of this book was published with Word Publishing Company; the second printing is by Fairway Press.

Dr. Wilson served as president of the Parent Teacher Association in two schools. He was an active scout leader, serving as a committeeman for both a cub pack and a troop, in addition to serving as an Assistant Cub master, Cub master, Scoutmaster and Explorer Advisor. He is a former Commander of the Durham, North Carolina Power Squadron, a boating safety organization. He served on the official board of Asbury United Methodist Church for four terms, on the North Carolina Conference Board of Laity for one term, and on the Curriculum Resources Committee of the United Methodist Church for two quadrennia. More recently, he was president of the United Methodist Church Renewal Services Fellowship and a director of Good News — a forum for scriptural Christianity in Methodism. Dr. Wilson was one of the founders of Contact Durham, a tele-ministry, and was a director of the national organization, Contact USA.

Dr. Wilson’s work with a variety of mission agencies, national churches and Christian organizations often takes him overseas. In Africa he has lectured from a Christian perspective on an assortment of mental health subjects in Madagascar, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Ethiopia. In Asia he lectured in the Philippines, Nepal and India. In Europe, seminars have been given in Germany, Switzerland and England. He has held numerous offices in state, regional and national medical organizations. He is a former president of the Southern Psychiatric Association and is presently a member of the board of directors for the American Association of Christian Counselors.

Dr. Wilson was Finch Lecturer at Fuller Theological Seminary in 1974, and in 1977 he lectured at a Conference on Life and Death at Western Conservative Baptist Seminary. A frequent speaker at conferences that relate Christianity to psychiatry and psychology, he presents at renewal conferences, Holy Spirit conferences, family life conferences and is a missioner of the Order of St. Luke. He was awarded the Pioneer Award in Christian Psychiatry at the First International Congress on Christian Counseling. He also received the Ephraim McDowell Medal from the Christian Medical Foundation and the 1996 Educator of the Year from the Christian Medical and Dental Society.

Dr. Wilson is listed in the Who’s Who in the Southeast, Who’s Who in America and American Men and Women of Science, as well as in Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare.