Professor Pelham Wilder Jr.

Professor Pelham Wilder, Jr. - DURHAM, NC - Professor Pelham Wilder, Jr., devoted husband of the late Sterly Lebey Wilder died on October 6. He was born July 20, 1920, the only child of the late Pelham Wilder and Hattie Wilder Wilder of Savannah, Ga. He received his undergraduate degree at Emory University and then began a doctoral program in chemistry at Harvard University. When his graduate studies were interrupted by World War II, he served two years of active duty as an ensign in the United States Navy in the Pacific Theater. On March 20, 1945, he and Sterly Lebey were married in Savannah. The couple spent several months at naval bases in Miami and Key West, then he returned to his duty as a navigator on a destroyer escort. After the war he completed the research for his Ph.D at Harvard and in 1949 received an appointment to the faculty of the Department of Chemistry at Duke University, where he taught undergraduate and graduate students for the next fifty years. In 2000, he retired as the University Distinguished Service Professor. In addition to his appointment in the Chemistry Department, he held, for thirty-five years, a professorship in the Department of Pharmacology in the Duke University School of Medicine. From 1977 to 2000 he served as University Marshal and Chief of Protocol of the University. In 1971 he received the Duke Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award and in 1993, he received the University Medal, the highest award the university can bestow upon one of its own. During his years at Duke Dr. Wilder served on more than a dozen university committees including the curriculum committee, admissions committee, commencement committee, and the directorship of undergraduate studies in the Department of Chemistry. For thirty years he chaired the officer education committee which oversees the university's ROTC committees. For a period of twenty- five years he represented Duke University on the National Association of Naval ROTC Universities and was chair of that organization for six years. In 1989 he was presented the Navy Distinguished Service award for his service to the Naval ROTC at the national level, the second highest award the Navy can present a civilian. For years Dr. Wilder also served as a consultant to the National Science Foundation, the E.I. DuPont Demours Company , and the Advanced Placement program of the College Board. He also was chairman of the advanced placement chemistry program for five years. He was president of the Durham Rotary Club in 1975, and for 16 years was a member of the board of trustees of Durham Academy, serving two terms as chairman of that board. He was also a ruling elder of the Presbyterian Church. He was predeceased by his wife, who died on May 18, 1998. He is survived by three children: Ann Wilder of Durham, Pelham Wilder III and his wife Susan of Atlanta, Georgia, and Sterly Lebey Wilder of Durham. He is also survived by grandsons Pelham Wilder IV of Atlanta, Georgia, and Andrew Davidson Wilder of Charlotte, North Carolina, and daughter-in-law Lee Davidson Wilder of Atlanta. Pelham Wilder, Jr. loved his family, he loved his God, he loved his friends, he loved Duke University, and he loved his country. The funeral service was held on Wednesday, October 10, at 11:00 am in Duke University Chapel led by presiding ministers Dr. Richard Lischer, the James and Alice Mead Cleland Professor of Preaching at the Duke University Divinity School and the Reverend Dr.William Willimon, former bishop of the north Alabama district of the United Methodist Church. Internment will take place on at 11:00 am on Friday, October 12, at the family plot in Bonaventure Cemetery with Rev. Layne C. Hansen officiating. Funeral arrangements in Savannah are being handled by Fox & Weeks Funeral Directors. Memorials may be made to the Sterly and Pelham Wilder, Jr., Chapel Endowment Fund c/o Duke University Chapel, Box 90974, Durham, NC 27708 or to the Frank Neelon Fund for Literature in Medicine, c/o Triangle Community Foundation, 324 Blackwell Street #1220, Durham, NC 27701. Savannah Morning News October 11, 2012 Please sign our Obituary Guest Book at savannahnow.com/obituaries.