Former Longtime Sandburg Trustee Tom Wilson Passes Away
Aaron Frey
Wednesday, September 2, 2020 10:11 AM
Campus News
Galesburg, IL
Carl Sandburg College is saddened by the news of the passing of former longtime Board of Trustees member Tom Wilson.
Wilson, who held several other civic positions in Galesburg and was a local historian, died Tuesday in Galesburg. He was 82.
Visitation for Wilson will be from 1-2:30 p.m. Saturday at Hinchliff-Pearson-West Funeral Directors and Cremation Service in Galesburg. Graveside services will be at 3 p.m. at East Linwood Cemetery in Galesburg. Due to COVID-19, social distancing and facemasks and will be required, and limited seating will be available. A virtual service will be available on the H-P-W Facebook page.
Wilson first joined the Sandburg Board in 1970 and never missed a regularly scheduled meeting in his 29 years as a trustee. During that time, he served as Board chairman four times. Prior to being elected to the Board, Wilson was a member of the original steering committee in 1965 that established Sandburg.
Wilson was elected president of the Illinois Community College Trustees Association in 1987-88, spearheading efforts that led to a 14-percent increase in state funding for community colleges. He also served as ICCTA vice president in 1986-87. Wilson also was a former delegate to the ICCTA Board of Representatives and chaired the association’s West Central Region as well as its Executive, History, Nominating and State Relations Committees. In 1993, he was the second recipient of the ICCTA’s Ray Hartstein Trustee Achievement Award, which recognizes exemplary service by a currently serving community college board member.
In 2000, one year after his retirement from the Board, Wilson was honored by having the road that rings Sandburg’s Main Campus in Galesburg renamed Tom L. Wilson Boulevard. That same year, he received the ICCTA’s Michael S. Monaghan Meritorious Service Award, which is given to those who have contributed to the advancement of the association and community college education in Illinois.
“Tom Wilson’s care and commitment to Sandburg in some of its earliest years helped shape the College into the institution it is today,” President Dr. Seamus Reilly said. “It is fitting that the College’s address bears Tom’s name, given that few people in Sandburg’s history have left as large of a mark on it as he did. On behalf of the Sandburg community, our thoughts are with Tom, his family and his loved ones during this time.”
