Dr. Wayne Jerome "Jerry" Wilson

Dr. Wayne Jerome “Jerry” Wilson, PHD., 81, died Sunday, April 27, 2014 at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler. He was born Oct. 24, 1932 in Fort Smith, Arkansas. He was nearly a fifty year resident of Nacogdoches.

He was an only child and was preceded in death by his father, step-father; mother, Ora Lee Roberts.

After graduation in Arkansas, he moved to Dallas, Texas. His love of movies was already evident as he worked in movie theaters, until being drafted into the United States Army in December of 1952.

After his military service, he attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas where he received his Bachelor and Master Degrees. He then attended Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth where he received his PHD in psychology in 1965. He was then hired at Stephen F. Austin State University in September of 1964 as an Assistant Professor of Psychology. He was promoted to Associate Professor and Department Head in 1967-68.

He was promoted to Professor in 1969-70. In June of 71, he resigned as Head of the Department. Jerry was married from 1977-1981 to Linda Harkness. He retired as a Professor of Psychology in 1997, but worked part time on modified service for there more years before fully retiring in 2000 after serving 36 years at SFA.

Jerry was one of the founding members of the Psychology Program at SFA, which was at one time part of the College of Education. It became an independent department of psychology on the College of Liberal Arts when John T. Lewis was head. When Dr. Lewis became Vice President of Academic Affairs and Jerry became Department Head, reorganized occurred.

Jerry and others founded the Masters graduate program. He supervised many MA thesis, published and presented numerous papers and published several books as well.

Jerry developed and taught a number of popular psychology courses. His first interest was in Animal Behavior or Comparative Psychology. He later developed and taught Social Psychology, Human Sexuality, Psychology of Aggression and Psychology in the Movies. Throughout this time he also taught Experimental Psychology and Experimental Design/Methodology at the graduate level.

He was very highly regarded by his colleagues, students and staff and did television interviews as an expert in his field. Jerry spent his retirement years researching several other topics and became an avid collector of Nostalgia and popular culture. These items included signs, prints, figures, comic books, old radio programs and movies, etc.

His love of movies continued thorough out his life. He and some of his friends spent Friday nights having dinner and watching movies for the past 46 years.

Memorial visitation for Dr. Wayne Jerome” Jerry” Wilson, 81, of Nacogdoches will be from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, May 4, 2014 at Cason Monk-Metcalf Funeral Directors. Special friend, Robert Verner will be present to receive guests, colleagues and to share memories of Wayne’s journey.

Memorial donations may be offered to his favorite charity: Meals on Wheels, 621 Harris Street, Nacogdoches, Texas, 75964.

Online condolences may be offered to www.casonmonk-metcalf.com Arrangements are under the direction of Cason Monk-Metcalf Funeral Directors, 5400 North Street Nacogdoches. Texas,75965.