Category: Finding your roots

William August “Bill” Wilson is one of the few physicians in my family. I met him two years ago when I traveled to Block Island, Rhode Island to meet and interview him for our Orme family history. There were a few gaps in my research and I was hoping he would be able to shed some light on this branch of our tree. Block Island is a quaint little island right off the coast of the state. A high-speed ferry takes you back and forth. Once on the island you have the option of renting bikes or walking through the main town.

Bill’s son Willy who is a New York attorney, picked me up from the National Hotel where I was staying. The hotel was adorable. I wasn’t prepared for the hotel not having elevators or air conditioning (they turn off the air the last week of September) but it was a charming New England gem.

Willy was the ultimate tour guide of Block Island. We went to the Mohegan Bluffs a beautiful beach where people were still surfing despite the fact the it was well past Labor Day.

We also stopped at the Block Island Southeast lighthouse which is listed the National Historic Landmark

We finally wound our way around the island to Bill and Martha’s house. They bought the house in 1978 and eventually retired there. Bill and Martha were waiting on us. I could see Bill’s standing at the door. One of the first things I noticed about my 2nd cousin was he was a small quiet man. Bill at this time was 92 years old standing just 5′ 6″ at best. He had a burgundy sweater on and very sturdy tennis shoes. I would sit with Bill, his wife Martha and son Willie for the next few hours and attempt to capture this man’s entire life.

Bill comes from a branch of the Orme family that for some reason, became separated sometime after 1950. No one in my family knew of him, let alone that he became one of few people of color to graduate from an East Coast medical school. He also shares the middle name August with many other Orme’s including a few Augusta’s on his mother side of the tree.

Bill was born in St. Louis, Missouri to William August “Gus” Wilson and Hallie Burles Wilson on July 3, 1924. Bill was born in the People’s Hospital by C-Section. The People’s Hospital was opened in 1894 as Provident and eventually changed names to People’s in 1918. It was one of three hospitals in St. Louis that served African-Americans. It still stands today although in disrepair.

Bill’s parents were people of mixed race, William Wilson Sr’s. mother was my Great-Grand Aunt Mary Josephine Orme from Linn, Mo. William Sr’s father was to Bill’s estimation an unknown local white farmer. Mary Josephine was married to a man named Ben Wilson. At this time no one can explain who Gus’ father was but this revelation explains the difference in color between Gus and his other nine siblings. Gus completed the 8th grade and eventually would serve during WWI in a colored troop. Bill’s family would move to St. Louis around 1916 and his father Gus cleaned cars and was an occasional chauffeur.

His younger brother Halleck “Hal” was also born in St. Louis nine years later. Hal married and had 3 sons, staying in the Bay Area for the remainder of his life.

Bill was extremely intelligent and skipped several grades. He attended Sumner High school in St. Louis. Sumner was the first high school for African-Americans west of the Mississippi river. Bill graduated high school in three years at the age of 14 completing his last year in California. By 1937 Gus was laid off and his parents decided to move to give Bill a better opportunity. They followed another Orme cousin, Walter Orme to Oakland. Bill was 15 when he started college, graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in psychology at the age of 19.

Bill stayed at home for 2 more years. When the WWII started he moved into a co-op and enlisted in the Reserve Corps. He started active duty on March 11, 1943 in the U.S. Army. He did his basic training at Camp Joseph Robinson in Little Rock, Arkansas. After training as a replacement specialist, he was sent overseas and traveled through Northern Ireland, England, France and finally Germany. He was serving in France when the Atom Bomb was dropped. He also visited a Japanese internment camp and was depressed by what he saw.

After the war Bill attended graduate school and applied for Medical School at Yale University ion Hartford, Connecticut. He worked in a lab and there he met his wife Martha Alice Nelson. They married September 27th, 1954 despite her families reluctance to accept their future son-in-law’s African lineage. Over time once Bill and Martha had children Martha’s parents came around. They had four children, Caroline, Harold, William III and Cathy.

In 1953 Bill graduated from Yale Medical with an MD-PhD degree, making him the first African-American to earn dual doctorates. He was certainly a pioneer in medicine and science as one of the few people of African descent to graduate from Yale Medical School during the first half of the century. Bill was also one of the few persons of color at the height of his career to work in neuroscience. Bill also had a long and successful academic career as a biopsychologist that included positions at the University of Colorado, Boulder; Bryn Mawr College; and the University of Connecticut. He served in a number of administrative posts while also engaged in research and teaching. He was an editor of the major journal in his field, the Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, and was a member of a National Institutes of Heath grant-review study section. Most of Bill’s research dealt with brain/behavior relationships. That is, which brain structures involve learning, memory and perception.

I really enjoyed my time with the Wilson’s and was saddened to receive a message in May 2017 that Bill had passed away. I certainly don’t believe that I have given is entire career justice but this was just a small snippet of what we do know of the Wilson-Orme Family branch.