Ernest P Wilson

Ernest Wilson, a retired United States Agency for International Development (USAID) executive, died on August 10, 2016 of complications from Alzheimer’s disease at Spring Arbor in Leesburg, Virginia. Mr. Wilson was 91.

Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on February 24, 1925, Mr. Wilson was the son of the late Octavia Spears and the late Benjamin Wilson.

Mr. Wilson was a 1943 graduate of McKinley High School in Louisiana and served in the U.S. Army Air Force with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. He received a Good Conduct Medal, WWII Victory Medal, and the American Campaign Medal.

He met his future wife of 66 years, the former Merry Price, when both were students at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. They were married on May 21, 1950 at the bride’s home in Chicago, Illinois.

Mr. Wilson graduated from the University of Illinois in 1949 with a degree in Accounting. He completed the Mid-Career Fellows Program in 1976 at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University.

After college, Mr. Wilson began his career as the chief accountant for the Chicago Housing Authority. In 1962, he enjoyed a storied career with USAID, serving in senior accounting positions and living overseas with his family in Ethiopia, Brazil, Guatemala, Ghana, and Kenya. In 1977, after completing additional training at Princeton University, he returned to Washington, DC to become the African Bureau Chief of the USAID, Loan Division. His last overseas assignment was as the Associate Director of financial Management for USAID/Egypt in 1981. He received numerous awards during his USAID tenure, including the Meritous Honor Award from USAID/Kenya, 1978, and was appointed Counselor Officer/Secretary in the U.S. Diplomatic Service, 1981.

In 1984, Mr. Wilson retired from USAID and moved with his wife to New York City to serve as Director of Management for International House, New York City. After three years, he and his wife relocated to Reston, Virginia, where he returned to work for USAID as a consultant to the Office of Financial Management. For nearly 15 years he traveled conducting peer audits and filling in for vacationing staff at USAID offices in numerous countries, including Panama, Sri Lanka, Peru, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tunisia. During the 1990’s, Mr. Wilson served on the board of directors of Opportunities Industrialization Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Mr. Wilson participated in a variety of professional associations, including the American Foreign Service Association, the Federal Government Accountants Association, the American Accounting Association, and was a member of the Career Senior Foreign Service of the United States with the rank of Counselor.

Mr. Wilson was a devoted grandfather who often brought back gifts, pictures, and detailed accounts of his overseas adventures. He enjoyed playing bridge and tennis, and regularly attended services at Saint Thomas, a Becket Catholic Church, Reston, Virginia.

In a 1998 interview, in recalling his USAID career Mr. Wilson said, “I think that it’s the best thing I could have done. It was a wonderful life. I feel that I accomplished a lot more than I would have selling shoes, or stock, or something like that. I think most people who have had careers in AID look back on them with a great deal of pride and affection. It would be hard to find a life that would surpass that.”

His wife Merry; daughter of Diane W. Scott of Aldie, Virginia; son Stephen J. Wilson of Baltimore, Maryland; four grandchildren and one great-grandson survive Mr. Wilson. His sister, Bert, died in 2004.

A funeral service will take place at 12:00pm on Monday August 22, 2016 at National Funeral Home, Falls Church, Virginia, with a reception to follow. Inurnment will take place at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date, to be determined.