WILSON, Kenneth G(eorge) 1923-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born April 21, 1923, in Akron, OH; died March 11, 2003, in Mansfield, CT. Educator and author. Wilson was a longtime English professor and former dean and vice president at the University of Connecticut. His A.B. degree, earned in 1943, was from Albion College. After serving in the U.S. Army Signal Corps from 1943 to 1946, he completed his M.A. in 1948 and his Ph.D. in 1951 at the University of Michigan. Except for a year spent at the University of Bergen, Wilson's entire academic career was served at the University of Connecticut. Beginning as an instructor there in 1951, he became a full professor of English in 1963, headed the department from 1965 to 1966, was dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 1966 to 1970, vice president of academic programs for the next four years, and vice president of academic affairs from 1974 to 1981. Returning to teaching, he retired as professor emeritus in 1989. As a university administrator, Wilson was credited by his peers for helping to build a nationally respected life sciences department, and for generally doing the same for the university as a whole. An authority on the English language, he coedited books such as Essays on Language and Usage (1959; second edition, 1963) and The Harbrace Guide to Dictionaries (1963) and was the author of Van Winkle's Return: Change in American English, 1966-1986 (1987) and The Columbia Guide to Standard American English (1993).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Chronicle for Higher Education, March 23, 2003, p. A37.

ONLINE

UConn News Online,http://www.news.uconn.edu/ (March 14, 2003).