George A. Wilson December 18, 1936 – March 02, 2019 Share this obituary Send Flowers Sign Guestbook| Send Sympathy Card George A. Wilson, 82, retired Shepherd University professor emeritus, died Saturday, March 2, 2019. Wilson was born December 18, 1936 in Burlington, and was son of George R. and Virginia N. Wilson who preceded him in death. Wilson attended Burlington Grade School, Keyser High School, and Potomac State College where he studied under Leonard Withers.
He graduated from Shepherd University where he majored in Speech and English and played the leading roles in Macbeth and Visit to a small Planet in his senior year. Wilson then earned a Masters Degree from Bowling Green State University where he also played summer stock at the Huron Playhouse on Lake Erie before pursing additional graduate studies at West Virginia University. For three summers Wilson was a member of Robert Porterfield’s Barter Theater of Virginia where he was associated with 24 plays including leading roles in The Caine Mutiny Court Marshal, Tea and Sympathy, and Inherit the Wind.
Wilson began his teaching career in College Park, Maryland. And later became instructor for three years at Petersburg High School where he taught classes in Art and Theater in which he staged Dark of the Moon, No Time For Sergeants, Picnic, Sabrina, Bus Stop, The Curious Savage, along with one-act plays and a glorious production of Jack and the Beanstalk. During Wilson’s 29-year tenure in the Department of Arts and Humanities at Shepherd University he taught classes in Speech, Radio Broadcasting, and Theater Direction.
He co-designed and directed productions in Reynolds’s Hall beginning with The Time of Your Life, followed by One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Ah, Wilderness! , House of Blue Leaves, The Shadow Box, Our Town, You Can’t Take It With You. And Michael Weller’s Moonchildren.
George then moved on to the larger Frank Center auditorium with full houses for LuANN Hampton, Gemini, Waltz of the Toreadors and the riotous Sly Fox, What the Butler Saw and a surprise hit, The 13 Clocks. Earlier in 1973 at the request of Shepherd’s President James Butler, Wilson opened Shepherd’s 10-watt radio station, In 1998 at the request of President Michael Riccards, Wilson supervised a power up-grade to 950 watts and continued as a co-advisor of WSHC until his retirement in 1998 when he was named Assistant Professor Emeritus. For 12 years Wilson played piano during the dinner hour on Friday nights back when Kevin Connell’s much acclaimed Yellow Brick Bank Restaurant was “the toast of the town”.
Wilson is survived by six cousins. Interment was private. Arrangements by the Melvin T. Strider Colonial Funeral Home, Charles Town.
Memorial contributions may be made to Animal Welfare Society of Jefferson County, P.O. Box 147, Charles Town, WV 25414. Please sign the online guestbook and view his obituary at www.
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