Joseph Hamilton Wilkinson

Joseph Hamilton Wilkinson, 90, beloved husband, father and grandfather, died peacefully at his home in Evanston on Sunday, October 1, 2023.

Born to Joseph and Louise (Uebele) Wilkinson on August 19, 1933 in Pittsburgh, PA, he primarily grew up in Washington, D.C., sharing a loving home with his much adored older sister Dorothy. The loss of their mother when Joe was 16 profoundly influenced many facets of his life. She had saved pennies to ensure he could attend college, enabling him to attain a B.A. in business from Duke University as an AFROTC candidate, before serving as a Chief Combat Intelligence Officer in the Air Force in the mid 1950s. A lifelong love of learning and opportunities to travel were sparked when his father took him on an eye-opening trip across the U.S. by train to help him cope with the loss. He spent a year in Morocco while in the Air Force, one of his favorite lifetime adventures, and his greatest thrill was being allowed to bank a B47 jet bomber directly over New York City at 42,000 feet.

In 1957 he married Nancy Miller and they moved to Winston-Salem, NC, where they raised their four children Mark, Ellen, Joanne, and David. He launched a career focusing on pensions and employee benefits, rising to President of Booke & Company, an insurance company. While working there he earned an M.B.A from Wake Forest University. While raising his family in heavily segregated North Carolina he championed desegregation efforts in the local business world, in his neighborhood, at his church, and in his children's schools and school buses. Joe strongly believed that everyone should have the same advantage no matter where they came from, which he had learned at his mother's knee, and was an active supporter of the poor and minorities throughout his life.

In 1977, after the dissolution of his marriage, he went to work for Hewitt Associates, moving briefly to the Chicago area before settling in Atlanta. In 1979 Joe married Margo Russell, an artist, who, along with her three young children, Bronwyn, Savage, and Josh, greatly expanded the size and responsibilities of his household. Although their marriage was short-lived, Russell introduced Joe to the artist Charles Shannon, a pivotal moment in Joe's life because Shannon introduced him to the art of Bill Traylor. He acquired a number of Traylor's work from Shannon and spent many years promoting the artist, whose life story greatly inspired him. Traylor was born enslaved and taught himself to paint in his mid-80s while living alone on the streets of Montgomery, Alabama. Traylor depicted his brutal life, from enslavement to emancipation through Jim Crow of the 1930s, in a vibrant and unique style of figurative art that today marks him as one of the most significant Folk Artists of the 20th century. Today his work hangs in major museums around the U.S.

Joe's career changed course again when he took a leadership role in Alexander & Alexander and ultimately returned to Chicago in the early 1980s, where he co-founded Skalinder Wilkinson Associates with Greg Skalinder. During this time he traveled extensively to Kenya, Egypt, and Greece, marveling for years afterward at his good fortune to be able to see the world.

In 1990 Joe met Pat, his wife of 33 years, while playing tennis at the East Bank Club. They bought a home in Evanston and spent many hours enjoying the rich cultural offerings that Chicago has to offer: holding season tickets to the Lyric Opera, Chicago Symphony, Music of the Baroque, the Art Institute and, of course, the Chicago Cubs. When Joe retired they bought a house in the south of France where they lived part time making many new friends, learning a new culture and language. Joe southern drawl caused him to butcher the accent, but he never gave up trying to speak the language.

In 1998, he decided to sell his Traylor art collection, directing a part of the proceeds to support four inner city schools across the nation. One of these was the Providence St. Mel School in Chicago. The opportunity to merge his support for human rights with the ability to educate the poor and underserved sparked his proudest achievement: he founded the Bill Traylor Foundation (BTF) to support inner city school education. The foundation reflected Joe's deep respect for Traylor and belief that Traylor's life story could be an inspiration to inner city school children facing more obstacles than they deserved. The foundation was rebranded as Schools That Can in 2006. Today, it boasts over 200 schools in its network, all sharing best practices to help educate tens of thousands of children. Joe also found time to serve on the board of St. Augustine's College, Evanston Fair Housing Board, and the Haven Youth and Family Services Board to support foster children.

To his friends and family, Joe's essence was his compassion and drive to empower others to be the best they can be. He was always looking out for his children and grandchildren, and was generous with his sage advice about how to find their path through a challenging world. He was tireless in his enthusiasm to tell a story or a joke, share a great book, instruct how to mix a "killer" cocktail, make a budget, paint window trim, catch a fish, soak in a sunset or simply point out how being together was a wonderful and precious thing. Hearing him cheer "way to go!" encouragements in his booming voice during sporting events or musical performances were cherished memories by a great many of his progeny. Such was his contentment with life that it was common to hear him ask, after a long day of work, "So, did you have a wonderful day?"

Joe was a 6'4 brunette with bright blue eyes, and a white left eyebrow (a birthmark). His near-sightedness dashed his lifelong dream of becoming a pilot in the Air Force, but his service instilled in him a fervor for staying fit, marking him as the healthiest and most disease-free amongst even his younger peers well into his late 80s. Joe enjoyed a good bottle of wine, had a passion for raw oysters, a talent for tennis and raquetball, loved sailing on Lake Michigan, and was a fan of an occasional good Cuban cigar. He loved Duke basketball and never missed a game. A quintessential extrovert, Joe enjoyed connecting to people wherever he went and had an endearing habit of bursting into song, mostly tunes from his childhood or college years, at the drop of a hat. Despite having increasing difficulties speaking in his final weeks, Joe was able to sing Shantytown, a family favorite, one last time in its entirety a week before he died. He'd be pleased to have it known that he even managed to stay in tune. When his health first started to decline and he contemplated his eventual demise, he encouraged his loved ones to heed what he had finally mastered about life: "Do the best you can, take good care of the people you love, and let the waves wash over you."

On the morning of his 90th birthday in August--a significant milestone for him and a festive occasion where he was surrounded by his devoted wife, and many of his children and grandchildren-he decided that he was ready for hospice. As he put it, he'd simply "run out of gas." He considered himself "the luckiest fool" to have led such a wonderful life and to have had such a loving family.

Joe is survived by his wife Patricia (Cloud), children Mark (wife Leslie), Ellen (husband Dimitris), Uma Joanne, David (wife Karen), nieces Jo Marie Taylor (husband Porter) and Anne Rawls, step-sons George and Jamie McCrae, grandchildren Hunter Dyami, Chekpa, Graham, Marie Stassinopoulos, Wohpe, Elias Stassinopoulos, Hugh, Charlie, Ella Jo, great-grandchildren Mason, Noah and Sophia, and many cherished friends.

Memorial services will be held privately. In lieu of flowers, Joe would be delighted if interested donors lent their support to The Providence St. Mel School in Chicago (https://psmnow.com/ways-to-give/), an early and enduring recipient of the Bill Traylor Foundation's and Joe's personal support. Alternatively, he would be delighted to inspire interest in supporting the ACLU (https://www.aclu.org/give/ways-to-give), or any organization working to make the world more equitable for others.