Impressions

Rudolph G. Wilson was an American professor, writer, storyteller, and public speaker, known by his students as Papa Rudy. He was the first African-American member, and later the first elected black president, of the Edwardsville School Board. At Claremont Graduate School in 1965, he was the first African American to teach in an all-white school. He was, until retirement in 2009, the assistant provost for Cultural and Social Diversity at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, as well as holding the academic rank of associate professor of secondary education in the department of curriculum and instruction.