Claudette was born on March 17, 1940, in Shelbyville, Tennessee, the daughter of Noble Claude Faulk and Lura Kathryn Drake Faulk. She grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Birmingham, Alabama, achieving numerous academic, community service and social awards and honors. Her undergraduate schools were Harding University and Missouri State University, where she once again achieved an outstanding record of successes and recognition. In 1961, she married John F. Wilson and they moved to Springfield, Missouri, where they shared in a campus ministry for several years. She began her career as a teacher in a Christian Kindergarten, then as an elementary teacher in two outstanding school systems in Missouri and Iowa. She and John had three daughters during their years in Springfield, Laura (1966), Amy (1968), and Emily (1970). In 1979 she received a Master’s degree in Guidance and Counseling from Missouri State University and served for several years as a public school guidance counselor. In 1983 the family moved to California, where John served as Dean of Seaver College at Pepperdine University. She soon began a career as a college professor, first as an adjunct in Teacher Education, and then, following her completion of a Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Barbara (1996), a tenure-track position at Pepperdine. As a teacher and mentor in Education and Educational Psychology, she helped train many teachers and administrators in Southern California and elsewhere and developed strong relationships with many Los Angeles area schools. She was loved and respected by her students, many of whom describe her as their favorite teacher. She served for two years as director of Pepperdine’s London Program. For many years, particularly after her retirement, she devoted much of her time and energy to the Associated Women for Pepperdine (now Pepperdine Legacy Partners), providing scholarships for deserving students from Churches of Christ. She was also widely known and loved for her “ministry of encouragement”—writing hundreds of notes of thanks and encouragement to anyone she thought needed or deserved such attention. During these years she and her good friend Helen Young shared a passionate love for, and devotion to, Pepperdine University. They also shared similar effervescent personalities, full of love and kindness for every person they met. Claudette Wilson was a woman of substance.
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