Dr. R. Gordon Wise

R. Gordon Wise, 86, of Mt. Gretna passed away on August 12, 2024 at Wellspan Good Samaritan Hospital.

Born in Carlisle, PA in 1938, Gordon was the son of the late Roy L. and Leila K. Wise. A 1956 Lebanon High School graduate and US Navy veteran, Gordon earned his bachelor's and doctorate degrees from the University of Missouri in Columbia and his Master's degree from Roosevelt University in Chicago. He completed additional graduate study at the University of Illinois and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. For six years Gordon taught art in the Oak Park, Illinois public school system where he served for two years as President of the Oak Park Education Association. In 1966, Gordon joined the faculty at Shippensburg University as Assistant Professor of Art prior to accepting a position on the faculty at the University of Missouri as Coordinator of Art Education. In 1969 he moved back to Central Pennsylvania to teach at Millersville University where he remained until his retirement in 1997 as Professor Emeritus. Dr. Wise served for 27 years as the Chair of Millersville's Art Department where he was responsible for a complement of fourteen full-time tenured faculty. When he retired the art department had grown to more than 300 majors in four undergraduate and graduate degree programs, Simultaneously, Gordon taught from 1973 to 1997 as an adjunct professor at Lebanon Valley College. Wise exhibited his large-scale abstract painting extensively in art museums, university galleries and in a wide variety of juried shows throughout the East. He also regularly served the art community as a juror for exhibitions. His art is housed in more than thirty public and private collections.

As a youngster growing up in Lebanon, Wise enjoyed music and played percussion from elementary through high school where he was in the concert band, the marching band, the orchestra and the "Swingsters" dance band. By the age of 16, he joined the American Federation of Musicians and played almost every weekend in numerous establishments in the region until he left for military basic training three days after his high school graduation. Gordon was also active in the boy scouts where he attained the rank of Eagle Scout. He participated regularly in scout council-wide activites including four years on the staff at Camp Bashore in various positions from dining hall steward to waterfront director. While a scout, he was a member of the Order of the Arrow Indian dance team that performed widely both locally and regionally- as far from Lebanon as Pittsburgh. During the early 1960's, Gordon became an avid sports car enthusiast and owned more than 60 sports, performance and race cars over his lifetime. He completed as a driver in a wide variety of competition venues- autocrossing, rallying, ice racing, hill climbing and road racing with the Sports Car Club of America on circuits such as Summit Point in Virginia, Lime Rock in Connecticut, Watkins Glenn in New York, Pocono Raceway and the New Jersey Motorsports Park. Since 2001, Gordon has been associated continuously with the Pennsylvania Hill Climb Association as an officer and record holding competitor. PHA's hill events are sanctioned by the SCCA and are the oldest, largest and most well-recognized automotive competition of it's kind in the nation. Gordon was inducted into the PHA's Hall of Fame.

Surviving are a sister, Linda Jo (Wise) wife of the late Kenneth Lerch of Reading; nieces Betsy Snyder of Mechanicsburg, Laurie (Snyder) wife of Jeffrey Sauder of Reinholds, and grand nephew Nathan Sauder husband of Katelyn and great niece Brinley Sauder all of Ephrata.

Visitation will be held on Tuesday, August 20, 2024 from 1:00-2:00 at Christman's Funeral Home, Inc., 226 Cumberland Street, Lebanon. Funeral services will follow at 2:00.

Burial will be at Grand View Memorial Park, Annville following the service with full military honors.

Memorial contributions may be made to Lebanon County Humane Society, 150 N. Ramona Road, Myerstown, PA 17067.

For more information, offer online condolences or to order flowers, please go to www.christmansfuneralhome.com