Wiess Masters House to be named in honor of Wilson

BY B.J. ALMOND
Rice News staff

The new masters house that is being constructed for Wiess College will be named Wilson House in honor of William L. Wilson Jr., who died almost a year ago.

	WILLIAM L. “BILL” WILSON JR.

Wilson was a professor emeritus in electrical and computer engineering and a longtime resident associate of Wiess College, where he became affectionately known as ”Dr. Bill.”

”For 28 years Dr. Bill served as a beloved resident associate of Wiess College, and the extensive archives that he maintained to document the college’s history makes his dedication to the college clear,” said Vice President for Resource Development Darrow Zeidenstein.

”He felt that being close to students helped him improve as a teacher, and he was passionate about getting to know students and helping them to succeed. Wiess College alumni cherished Dr. Bill as much as he cherished them, and several Wiess alumni asked that the Wiess College Masters House be named in his honor.”

The Rice Board of Trustees approved the name change at last month’s meeting.

A rendering shows the new master’s house under construction at Wiess College that will be named for “Dr. Bill.”

Wilson served on the Rice faculty from 1972 to 2006. During his 34 years here, he won the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching multiple times as well as the George R. Brown Prize for Excellence in Teaching and the Nicolas Salgo Distinguished Teaching Award.

It’s likely that the students who voted for these awards were expressing their appreciation not only for Wilson’s dedication in the classroom, but outside the classroom as well.

Wilson shared his expertise as a theater technician and a sound engineer by helping produce more than 50 Tabletop Theater shows at Wiess College. He recorded performances by the Rice Philharmonics, the comedy ensemble Spontaneous Combustion and other student groups. He helped create JamFest, a yearly festival for Rice student bands. Wilson’s numerous photos of student life have been on display in the Wiess Commons, including freshman mug shots that he took each year during Orientation Week so that upperclassmen could learn the names of new students.

Shortly before Wilson retired, he told Rice News that being a resident associate at Wiess gave him a chance to discuss personal as well as academic problems with students, and he welcomed them to stop by anytime. ”Sometimes I felt like I should just hang a sign on my door that read, ‘The doctor is in,”’ he said.

Mike Gustin, Wiess College master and professor of biochemistry and cell biology, said Wilson was “an important influence in so many lives at Wiess and Rice” and described him as “a paradigm for balancing personal involvement with support for student leadership.”

“The spirit of Dr. Bill’s involvement, inclusiveness, energy, inventiveness, and joi de vivre persists at Wiess College because of his example,” Gustin said. “He was our mentor as new masters and we miss him dearly.”

Naming Wiess House in Wilson’s honor is “a most fitting legacy to his enduring impact on the college,” Gustin said. “I have no doubt that former Wiessmen and current residents, who have heard much about Dr. Bill, will have an extremely positive reaction to this news.”

Construction of Wilson House begins in February and is scheduled to be completed in December. Updates on this project are available at http://construction.rice.edu/OpenProject.aspx?id=2022.