Gary Wilson Obituary

Wilson, Gary Dean

Gary Dean Wilson, son of Charles Albert Wilson and Helen Wilson, nee Gillihan, and brother of Donald and Karen, born in Gardner, Kansas on January 2, 1944, died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 81 in Chicago on August 17th, 2025, after a number of years of treatment for esophageal cancer.

The fullness and meaning, the joy and passion, the love and care he brought into the world exceeds easy description. Throughout his life, he was quick to laugh, to find outrage at social injustice, to offer help, to make friends, and to share dialog with others. While he cared for the world as a whole, he was especially devoted to his wife Modena of fifty-eight years, his sons Christopher (married to Rachel, both educators residing in Holyoke, Massachusetts) and Nicholas (married to Julie, both also educators residing in Stony Brook, New York), granddaughters Madeline and Lydia Wilson, step-grandchildren Henry and Charlotte Sadler, and the extended Wilson, Hoover and Coppock families.

Gary attended McPherson College in McPherson Kansas, having been recruited to play football and where he embarked on a strong academic life. At McPherson, he met his wife Modena Hoover, who, he liked to say, "taught him how to love." He received his Bachelor of Arts in English with honors in 1966, and then a Master of Arts from Wichita State University in English Literature. In 1968, he and Modena joined the Peace Corps and were stationed in Lobamba, Swaziland (now Eswatini), where they taught for two years in a tribally-sponsored school. Upon returning to the US, Gary earned a Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University in 1973. Thereafter, he accompanied and supported Modena as she pursued a successful career in academic medicine that took them from Madison, Wisonsin to Baltimore, Maryland and finally to Chicago.

Gary devoted his career to sharing the art of fiction-writing, first by teaching. He developed and ran a Writing Center at Roland Park Middle School in Baltimore for many years, where he produced an annual week-long writing festival called "My Word!" He was a creative writing instructor in Johns Hopkins School of Continuing Studies, and later, at the University of Chicago Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies, from which he received a Distinguished Service Award in 2014.

Gary also enjoyed a successful career as a published author, beginning with short stories and poems, followed by his first novel, 'Sing Ronnie Blue' with Rager Media in 2007; 'Getting Right' in 2017 and 'The Narrow Window' in 2024, both with Roundfire Books; and the short story collection 'For Those Who Favor Fire' in 2022 with Adelaide books, for which the Chicago Writers Association awarded him the 2023 Book of the Year Prize in Indie Fiction.

A memorial celebration for Gary will be held from on Monday, September 29, 2025 from 3 to 6 in the Lincoln Ballroom of the Union League Club of Chicago, 65 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to McPherson College (https://www.mcpherson.edu/giving/) in McPherson, Kansas.

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