Retired Air Force Pilot and Community Leader Dick Wilson dies
Military veteran and Gulf Coast community leader Dick Wilson died this morning at the age of 91.
Dick Wilson was born on June 5th, 1930 in Wabash, Indiana. In high school, he lettered in four major sports his junior and senior years and received a partial athletic scholarship to Indiana University.
Wilson graduated college in 1953 and began his Air Force career just a few years later. During his career, Wilson flew 368 missions in Vietnam.
Wilson also served as a test pilot and worked in Area 51 during his military career. Air Force Veteran and friend of Wilson Roland Weeks said, “I knew many colonels and none of them in my view were as close to being as wonderful of an officer in the Air Force as he was.”
Wilson ended his career working at Keesler Air Force Base as a lieutenant colonel where he retired in 1976. He and his family then decided to stay along the Coast and made Biloxi home. Coast Vue Host and friend of Wilson Rickey Mathews said, “He fell in love with Mississippi when he went through Keesler and he just wanted to come back here. He loved Mississippi, and one of the things that he wanted to do when he came is he wanted to just absolutely immerse himself in the community.”
After he left the Air Force, he owned Wilson’s Fish Camp, served on the Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce and was president of the Biloxi Chamber in 1995.
He helped found the annual Veterans Day Parade and worked to bring the Mississippi Vietnam Veterans Memorial to life in Ocean Springs. MS Coast Chamber of Commerce CEO Adele Lyons said, “I think the minute Dick got to Biloxi through his Air Force career, he got involved with the community, and he is a very long-time member – a very active member.”
To reward his service along the Coast, he was named the recipient of the Pat Santucci Award in 2019. “He was so excited that the community just recognized him for all the work he had done over the years, and just to be part of the group that had been past recipients. He was really honored and humbled by that and I was so glad we were able to do that for him.”
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