Jack Allen Wilson

1939 - 2025

Jack Allen Wilson

September 19, 1939 - January 16, 2025

Lexington, Kentucky - Jack Allen Wilson died peacefully at home after several years fighting chronic lymphocytic leukemia, surrounded by his wife Angene and daughters Miatta and Cheryl. We imagine him gardening with God.

Jack, an only child, grew up outside Adrian, Michigan where he moved at age two with his parents, Anne Elizabeth Jackson Wilson and Jay Kenneth Wilson, from Marion County, Ohio. He especially appreciated his education through seventh grade at the one room country school across from his home.

With degrees in engineering and education, his parents expected Jack to go to college. One reason he chose The College of Wooster in northern Ohio was because of his participation in high school Presbyterian youth activities. He majored in Speech and minored in Religion at Wooster and completed a master's in communications at Michigan State University.

Jack met Angene in their first year at Wooster. They were seniors and engaged to be married in August when they heard President Kennedy's "Ask not..." inaugural address and applied to the Peace Corps as it began in March 1961. As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Liberia Group One (1962-64), Jack taught English, PE, and woodworking to secondary students at Suehn Industrial Academy, led by African American missionaries. Students remember reading African literature for the first time, building a clay basketball court, and their team from the "bush" that Jack coached winning the first national high school championship. Besides regular reunions with Liberia Group One, Jack became president of the Kentucky Peace Corps Association in the early 2000s and was an active member in the National Peace Corps Association's Shriver Circle.

Jack's career in public administration began in Peace Corps in 1966 as Associate Director in upcountry Bo, Sierra Leone, followed by Washington desk officer for Nigeria and The Gambia, and Peace Corps Director in Fiji until 1972. He saw the environment as the next good cause and served as Chief of Authorization and Compliance at the new Ohio EPA 1973-75 before joining the Bureau of Environmental Protection in Kentucky in 1976, later heading the Division of Water from 1988 to 2002. Jack believed in the importance of government service and saw it as his calling.

In retirement Jack bought a truck and spent weeks at the Hopkins family farm near Ashland, Ohio. He served on Lexington's Green Space Commission and Black Church Coalition's board, was an active member of Second Presbyterian Church and a board member of Kentucky Natural Lands Trust. He and Angene were interviewers for and coauthors of two books published by University Press of Kentucky. They traveled to China, Ghana, Guatemala, Fiji, Malawi, Morocco, Myanmar, Scotland, South Africa, and on a River Elbe cruise and completed their goal of visiting every US state during retirement.

Jack is survived by his wife Angene Hopkins Wilson (Lexington, KY), daughters Miatta Wilson (Dallas, TX), and Cheryl McElroy and son-in-law Rick McElroy (Cincinnati, OH) and granddaughters Erin and Allison. He is also survived by Wilson relatives, Angene's large extended family, and a wonderful world family stretching from Liberia to Sweden. A live streamed memorial service will be held at Second Presbyterian Church in Lexington on Saturday, March 8 at 3:00 p.m., followed by a reception. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the church, Kentucky Natural Lands Trust, or Refuge Place International USA in Liberia. Burial will be later in the Savannah, Ohio cemetery.