Nothing could have been more prophetic than the words in Ernie Wilson's Wethersfield (Connecticut) High School Yearbook Class of 1946 that said, "Music and Airplanes follow Ernie wherever he goes."
Ernie Wilson completed his imperfect journey on September 27, 2022. He was a member of Union Baptist Church, in the city where he was born, Hartford, Connecticut. He was a life member of Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honor society; a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars; an honor member of Local 802 AFM, Associated Musicians of Greater New York; a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, and a member of the Space Coast Jazz Society, as well as many charitable organizations. He is predeceased by Joan E. Woods, his loving companion for more than 30 years and his sister, Shirley A. Doughtie. Ernie is survived by his beloved cat Beigee, seven nieces and nephews; Ed Doughtie, Glenda Doughtie, Cheryle Kresser, Bob Doughtie, Janice Haywood, Jim Doughtie and Carolyn Doughtie and his great-nieces and great-nephews; Peter Lubell-Doughtie, Malika Lubell-Doughtie, Athena Doughtie, and Cameron Doughtie, as well as many close friends in both sectors of his careers, that of engineering and music.
Ernie was a combat veteran in the U.S. Air Force, a B-29 Central Fire Control (CFC) gunner during the Korean Conflict for which he received an Air Medal, Korean Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal and other awards, and subsequently became a Select-Lead crewmember on a B-50 atomic bomber aircraft. This position ended abruptly on the first flight on January 8, 1951, following a return from TDY at Upper Heyford RAF Station in England and Sidi Slimane Air Base in French Morocco, when a mid-air collision occurred near Hunter AFB Savannah, Georgia resulting in a loss of the other aircraft and crew. Following his military service he pursued an engineering curriculum under the GI Bill at the University of Connecticut, where he earned a BS Degree in Electronics Engineering, as well as playing bass and vibraphone in different jazz groups in Hartford, Connecticut and college campus areas.
He was a Senior Flight Test Engineer at Republic Aviation on the Air Force F-105 Thunderchief Fighter, spending 18 months on a trip that was expected to be six weeks in Palmdale, CA development testing the aircraft's radar system, and subsequently transferred to Republic's Space Operations on a project evaluating Project Apollo command module reentry temperatures called Project FIRE. He then joined Grumman Aerospace in 1965 on the Project Apollo Program, where he participated in the development of a Communication Systems Test Program for the Lunar Module, while concurrently completing an evening engineering program at New York University, earning a Mechanical Engineering Degree with Honors. Following a transfer to Launch Operations at Kennedy Space Center, he became Manager of the Communication Systems Engineering Test Group, while also earning a Pilot's License with Commercial and Instrument ratings and musically heading a Jazz Trio at a beachside club known as the Melbourne Beach Casino.
The high point of Ernie's musical career occurred during the latter part of his military service and while at the University of Connecticut. At the time, he had transitioned from playing piano to bass viol and vibraphone. While stationed at Hunter AFB, Savannah, GA he played bass with one trio and vibraphone with another; the latter including famed jazz pianist Phineas Newborn, and bassist Milfred Middlebrooks who subsequently became Ella Fitzgerald's bass player, for 5 years. While in college, he became a house bass player in a jazz club that featured such notable jazz musicians as trumpeter Donald Byrd, saxophonist Houston Person, pianist Horace Silver and saxophonist Zoot Sims, as well as vocalists Jackie Paris, Marilyn Moore and King Pleasure, while also playing vibraphone with a jazz quartet on college campus.
He has requested that no formal memorial of his passing be held but that those so inclined make a contribution to a charity of their choice. He also requested that his earthly remains be cremated and buried at a local military gravesite or scattered in the ocean off of Cocoa Beach, where he lived for six years during the Apollo Program, a period he regarded as one of the most exciting and happiest of his life.
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