Senior Lifetime Achievement Awards

Margaret N. Wilson

Albany, NY

Date of Birth: March 7, 1905  

Deceased: November 2000

Nominated by: Her Children: Lois Wilson, Elizabeth Wilson Klepeis, and Edward Wilson

Early Accomplishments: Margaret Northrup Wilson (the third of five children) was the first family member to receive a bachelor's degree. She was the valedictorian of the Addison, NY High School Class of 1922, received a Regents Scholarship, and earned a bachelor's degree from Elmira College in 1926. She had a Latin/French major and completed the courses needed for a NYS teacher's license. 

 Family : Margaret and Hugh M. Wilson were married for 48 years, from 1935 until his death in 1984.    Mrs. Wilson was supportive of her husband's career and his caretaker after his stroke in 1979. They had three children (Lois, retired; Beth Klepeis, Director of Finance, Town of Reading, MA.; and Edward, Professor of Mathematics, Washington University) and six grandchildren.

The grandchildren reflect the family interest in education: two have received PhD degrees (in physics and geology), two are PhD candidates (in public health and geography), and two are undergraduates (at Brown University and Carleton College).

In 1975 Hugh and Margaret Wilson published a book on "Early Southern Steuben County and Some of its People from Pioneer Days to World War 1;" it is still used by family members and a Steuben historical society. In July, 1998 Mrs. Wilson joined more than 200 family members and neighbors attending the restoration and rededication of the Northrup Hill School House in Steuben County.

 Career: A 20-year career teaching Latin and French to secondary school students in Jordan, Hornell   and Ithaca was interrupted while Mrs. Wilson served as a full-time homemaker for   20 years. As a teacher she had a strong rapport with students and was the adviser to the Hornell High School Class of 1933. She retired from the Ithaca City Schools in 1967.

 Volunteer Activities: Mrs. Wilson has been a life-long volunteer. She was a teenage Sunday School teacher at the Addison Baptist Church. While her children were in school in Ithaca, she was a room mother, PTA president, Brownie and Girl Scout leader, Cub Scout den mother, and Sunday School leader. As a retiree living in Sun City, AR; Bath, NY; and Albany, Mrs. Wilson has been a Garden Club member, a Bath hospital volunteer, president of a hospital auxiliary, and Albany Salvation Army Auxiliary member - among other activities.

 Currently she is the class reporter for the Elmira College Class of 1926. Since she was 2 1/2 years old, Mrs. Wilson has attended Church regularly in the various communities in which she has lived. She transferred her Church membership to the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Albany in 1985 and was an active member of Circle A.