Professor of Political Science and Educator Wife to Plant Seeds for Scholarship

O.W. Wilson has a policy of never turning away anyone who wants to enroll in a class he’s teaching. As a result, a typical section of his Political Science 101 class will have nearly 175 students.

“As long as I have space, I’ll let students in,” says the professor of political science who has taught at CSU Dominguez Hills since 1972 and received 2005-2006 Presidential Outstanding Professor Award. His inclusive philosophy may stem from being raised in Plaquemine, Louisiana, where poverty was widespread and
education was important. Wilson became a teacher as a young boy when John S. Jones, known later as the first dean of Southern University in Baton Rouge, asked him to teach some of the adults of the town to read and write.

Wilson later earned his B.A. in liberal arts from Southern, where he met his wife on her first day of classes. The couple, who have made education the focus of their lives, have established the Edna Domino Wilson and O.W. Wilson Scholarship to support students in need. Having established a similar fund at Southern, the Wilsons have pledged $10,000 in seed money to begin an “organic” scholarship that they hope will grow.

“I’m hoping others will see the need to contribute and that more students will benefit from it,” says Edna Wilson, a retired principal of Bret Harte Intermediate School in Los Angeles.

O.W. Wilson sees every reason to be optimistic. “I’ve taught thousands of students over the years who’ve left Dominguez and have become quite successful as lawyers, doctors, and engineers,” he says. “Many of them have said
they would give to a scholarship. They feel they have a duty.”

An alumnus of the University of Illinois, La Salle University, USC, and Claremont Graduate School, Wilson provides the example, walking the walk by contributing to multiple alma maters, an act he describes as “a moral obligation.”

- Joanie Harmon