“There are just not enough people like him in the world,” Erroll Wendland said of Wilson. “His death is going to be a big loss for us. I loved him deeply and I’m going to miss him, as will the community.”
Wilson, “Dr. Ralph,” left his dental practice in California at age 35 in 1960 and moved to Temple to run Ralph Wilson Plastics, a company that manufactured decorative laminates and was founded by his father Ralph Wilson Sr.
He became president of the company in 1967, retiring in 1989.
George Hester had known Wilson since the 1950s in California when he (Hester) worked for Ralph Wilson Sr.
When Wilson moved to Temple to work in his father’s company, he learned the laminate business in record time, Hester said.
“He was a quick study and came up with many of the improvements that were made in the industry,” he said.
Both Wilson and his first wife, Jean, were awarded the Frank W. Mayborn Humanitarian Award in 1997 for their involvement with Temple’s Saulsbury Day Care Center; however, their many other contributions to the community were also acknowledged.
Jean Wilson died in 2004. Wilson married Sharon Childers in December 2005.
Wilson chaired the Temple Library Foundation’s fundraising committee, which raised $2.2 million to help relocate the city library from the old post office building to the renovated NationsBank building.
Wendland said working with Wilson on Temple Library Foundation’s effort to fund a new library was a delight.
“His influence in the community gave validity to getting Temple a first-class library,” Wendland said.
Because of Wilson, the fundraising campaign took about 60 days instead of the expected six months, he said.
Wilson was a generous supporter of the Cultural Activities Center and Civic Theater, not only personally, but also through the Ralph Wilson Public Trust, Wendland said.
Wilson recruited Wendland to serve on the King’s Daughters Hospital board of directors.
“We’re going to miss him … he had a rational mind that could figure out how to successfully get through a problem, whatever it was,” he said. “He was generous to a fault.”
Numerous local organizations and projects have benefited from grants from the Ralph Wilson Trust founded by Ralph Wilson Sr., especially the Ralph Wilson Youth Club.
The youth club has provided thousands of children safe, supervised after-school and summer activities.
“They don’t come any finer than Dr. Ralph Wilson,” said Charlie Kimmey, executive director of Ralph Wilson Youth Club. “He’s a saint as far as I’m concerned.”
While the youth club was founded by Wilson’s father, the son had been involved in the organization for many years.
“He had a heart for kids and there are few people as generous,” Kimmey said.
The youth club threw Dr. Wilson an 80th birthday party a few years back with 500 children in attendance.
“He’s the kind of person who doesn’t like the limelight, but you could tell he really enjoyed that party because of the kids,” Kimmey said.
Wilson was a huge supporter of Santa Pal and was very generous to the Christmas effort, he said.
“He couldn’t think of any better way to spend your money than buying toys for needy children at Christmas,” Kimmey said.
Others that have benefited by Wilson’s involvement include The Contemporaries, Wildflower Country Club, Christian Farms/Treehouse and Temple College.
“Of all the people I worked with through the United Way, Dr. Ralph truly embodied what it is to care and what it is to give back to other people,” said Ann Thompson, executive director of the United Way of Central Texas.
Wilson was a dynamic and charismatic man who never lost sight of who he was and what he owed to the community, she said.
In 2001, Dr. and Mrs. Wilson were the first inducted into the local United Way’s Alexis de Tocqueville Society, which “recognizes persons who have rendered outstanding volunteer service in their community or nationally.”
His greatest love was children, but he never forgot the other needs in this community, Mrs. Thompson said.
“Ralph was a great man and left a lot more in Temple than he took out,” said Bill Reeder.
Reeder said he first met Wilson through the Texas Association of Business when they worked together on local and state issues.
“He was pretty busy, but he eventually slowed down,” Reeder said of Wilson.
Wilson joined a golfing foursome that included Reeder.
“We played golf for about 30 years,” he said. “I played golf with him from Virginia to Hawaii.”
Reeder said his family and the Wilsons took many vacations together, including one that included playing golf in Ireland.
“He helped a lot of people that no one knew about … he just wasn’t the type of person to talk about what he had done,” he said. “He’s going to be missed.”
