Wilbor O. Wilson

The Davis Enterprise

October 3, 2001

Submitted by: Peggy B. Perazzo

Wilbor O. Wilson died Sept. 26, 2001, in Davis. Born on Dec. 1, 1910, in Fort Towson, Okla., he was 90 years old.

He was the youngest of nine children, raised on a livestock ranch by parents of Choctaw and Chickasaw descent. His interest in raising poultry developed during childhood, and he was responsible for tending to the chickens on the ranch. He participated in Choctaw County 4-H clubs and tended a flock of Golden Laced Wyandottes. He attended Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in poultry husbandry. He later earned a master's degree from Kansas State University and a Ph.D. from Iowa State University.

He worked at a General Mills research farm from 1935-1937, and was an assistant professor at South Dakota State College in Brookings from 1937-1944. While in Brookings, he met Thelma Torguson and they married in August 1938. They had two children.

The family then moved to Ames, Iowa, where he served as a research associate at Iowa State from 1944-1946. In 1946, he was offered an assistant professor position in poultry husbandry at UC Davis, working alongside Lewis Taylor, Mike Lerner and Vigfus Asmundson.

The family boarded the Southern Pacific "Daylight Limited" and arrived at the Davis train depot early one October morning. Housing in Davis was difficult to find, due to the war, so the family spent its first weeks at the Davis Hotel at Second and B streets. Then they stayed at a fraternity house, at Fifth and A streets, courtesy of James Wilson, a faculty member of the Animal Science Department. The Wilson family then moved to an attic room in an old shingle-sided poultry building on campus, where Wilson taught downstairs.

After finding a house to buy in the Wray Tract, two more children were born. Wilson had the honor of being the first Native American faculty member at UC Davis. He was promoted to associate poultry physiologist and then full professor. He made many significant scientific contributions including his work on controlled environmental housing for poultry, the introduction of Japanese quail as a laboratory subject, and research concerning photo-periodism and biological rhythms as affecting poultry and coturnix. He published more than 190 articles, including a cover article for Scientific American magazine. Sabbaticals included working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Maryland in 1954; the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness at the University of Washington at Pullman in 1960 researching the hypothalamic neurosecretory system of the Coturnix japonica; and in 1970, furthering his research at the University of Hawaii Department of Animal Husbandry in Hilo.

His research led him all around the world, including Thailand, Brazil and Japan. Traveling became one of his favorite pastimes. He retired from UC Davis in 1978, and later taught a course on the Five Civilized Tribes, specializing in the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes for the UC Davis Native American Studies Department.

Wilson and fellow parishioners helped build the Davis Lutheran Church at Eighth and B streets, and later he was an active member of Our Faith Lutheran Church on Oak Avenue. He was also a member of the Poultry Science Association, serving as director, officer, president and fellow. He was also named a fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was a member of the Alpha Gamma Rho's Pi Chapter. He also recently served as president of the Davis branch of the American Association of Retired Persons.

He is survived by his daughters, Roberta Wilson-Shakya and husband Hera of Davis, and Rosemary Trouette of Visalia; his sons Ben Wilson of Renton, Wash., and John Wilson and wife Shou Ting Wilson of Davis; and eight grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, Thelma Torguson Wilson, in 1988.

Remembrances are to go to the International House of Davis or Our Faith Lutheran Church of Davis. A memorial service will begin at 5 p.m. on Oct. 13 at Our Faith Lutheran Church, 1801 Oak Ave.

(Obituary from the "The Davis Enterprise," October 3, 2001, (Yolo County). Submitted with the permission of the "The Davis Enterprise," 315 G Street, Davis, CA 95616, . Please note: I am not related to the family listed above, and I do not have any further information on this family.)

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