William P. Wilson, M.D. --
A Biographical Sketch

Contact William Wilson, M.D.
Telephone: 919.812-3822.
Email: williamwilson@verizon.net

During the last 41 years Dr. William P. Wilson, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center, has lectured in a number of settings on subjects that relate to religion and mental health. He usually lectures on subjects requested by the organizers, or selects the subjects himself if there is no theme for the conference.

There are needs, however, that church groups have that we can meet if they are aware of our ability to provide instruction. We do, then, want to make people aware of our availability.

When we began our ministry our purpose was to define the spiritual nature of man and the diseases that infect him. We also proposed to identify the spiritual interventions that can be used to treat these diseases. Having done these, we can integrate the principles of Christian healing into the practice of medicine in order that the spiritual diseases of patients can be correctly diagnosed and treated.

This forced us to identify the nature of spiritual health and how it was achieved and maintained. Relying on our investigations and the integration of the observations of others, we believe that we have been able to accumulate a body of knowledge that can be addressed to both Christians and non Christians alike. This knowledge, if received and acted upon, will help them to achieve a spirituality that will bring them greater mental health and happiness.

Dr. Wilson is qualified to conduct such a ministry. He is trained in medicine, child psychiatry, adult psychiatry and neurology. He was for 35 years a respected teacher on the faculty of Duke University Medical Center. A consultant to many state and U.S. government agencies, he has also taught in medical schools all over the world. Some of these are The University of Pretoria in South Africa, The University of Zimbabwe, The University of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, The State University of the Ukraine in Kiev, The University of the Philippines in Manila, The University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, and many others.

Dr. Wilson has lectured to pastors’ conferences and preached to congregations of many third world churches. In the U.S. he has taught at conferences sponsored by many denominations and churches. He is the director of The Institute of Christian Growth; this institute has for years sponsored conferences on a wide variety of subjects relating to spiritual health.

Dr. Wilson’s research includes many other areas besides spiritual health. These areas have included basic neuroscience, pharmacology, clinical psychiatry, and aging.

He has written a book, with Kathryn Slattery, entitled The Grace to Grow, the Power of Christian Faith in Emotional Healing. This book includes a personal account of his encounter with God. His second book, The Nuts and Bolts of Discipleship, meets a poignent need in today's Christian society.

A more detailed biographical sketch follows:

William Preston Wilson was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on November 6, 1922,. Educated in North Carolina public schools, he attended Duke University where he received a B.S. in Chemistry in 1943. Dr. Wilson received his M.D. degree from the same institution in 1947, and interned at the Gorgas Hospital in the Panama Canal Zone.

After this, he entered a residency in psychiatry at Duke University. He trained in child psychiatry, adult psychiatry and neurology. At the end of his clinical training he went to McGill University and the Montreal Neurological Institute to receive further training in basic and clinical neuroscience.

Dr. Wilson began his faculty career at Duke University when he became an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in 1955. In 1958, he accepted a position at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, to become Associate Professor of Psychiatry and the Director of Psychiatric Research.

He returned to Duke in 1961, to become Head of the Division of Biological Psychiatry. In 1964, he was appointed Professor of Psychiatry. He resigned the post of division head in 1983. From 1961 to 1981, Dr. Wilson directed the electroencephalographic laboratories at Duke Medical Center.

He retired from Duke in 1984. At present he is Distinguished Professor of Counseling at Carolina Evangelical Divinity School and is the Director of the Institute of Christian Growth (a branch of New Directions International).

Dr. Wilson closed his practice of psychiatry on July 1, 2007, after caring for the sick for 62 years.He is married to the former Elizabeth Taylor of Raleigh, North Carolina. They have five adult children: Bill is a computer scientist, Ben is a civil engineer, Karen is a nurse, Tammy is a housewife, and Bob teaches auto technology at Durham Technical Community College. Dr. Wilson also enjoys 16 grandchildren.

He is the author of 166 scientific articles and regularly contributes to several religious newsletters and magazines. He has edited two books and co-authored a book with Kathryn Slattery, The Grace to Grow, The Power of Christian Faith in Emotional Healing.The first printing of this book was published with Word Publishing Company; the second printing is by Fairway Press.More recently, he published The Nuts and Bolts of Discipleship, also by Fairway Press.

Dr. Wilson served as president of the Parent Teacher Association in two schools. He was an active scout leader, serving as a committeeman for both a cub pack and a troop, in addition to serving as an Assistant Cubmaster, Cubmaster, Scoutmaster and Explorer Advisor. He is a former Commander of the Durham, North Carolina Power Squadron, a boating safety organization.

He served on the official board of Asbury United Methodist Church for four terms, on the North Carolina Conference Board of Laity for one term, and on the Curriculum Resources Committee of the United Methodist Church for two quadrennia. More recently, he was president of the United Methodist Church Renewal Services Fellowship and a director of Good News — a forum for scriptural Christianity in Methodism.

Dr. Wilson was one of the founders of Contact Durham, a teleministry, and was a director of the national organization, Contact USA. Dr. Wilson’s work with a variety of mission agencies, national churches and Christian organizations often took him overseas. In Africa he lectured from a Christian perspective on an assortment of mental health subjects in Madagascar, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Ethiopia. In Asia he lectured in the Philippines, Nepal and India. In Europe, seminars have been given in Germany, Poland, Czechechoslovakia, Switzerland and England.

He has held numerous offices in state, regional and national medical organizations. He is a former president of the Southern Psychiatric Association and is presently a member of the board of directors for the American Association of Christian Counselors.  He also served as section secretary and chairman of neurology and psychiatry of the Southern Medical Association. Dr. Wilson was Finch Lecturer at Fuller Theological Seminary in 1974, and in 1977 he lectured at a Conference on Life and Death at Western Conservative Baptist Seminary.

A frequent speaker at conferences that relate Christianity to psychiatry and psychology, he presents at renewal conferences, Holy Spirit conferences, family life conferences and is a missioner of the Order of St. Luke. He was awarded the Pioneer Award in Christian Psychiatry at the First International Congress on Christian Counseling. He also received the Ephraim McDowell Medal from the Christian Medical Foundation and the 1996 Educator of the Year award from the Christian Medical and Dental Society.

Dr. Wilson is listed in the Who’s Who in the Southeast, Who’s Who in America, American Men and Women of Science, Who ’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare, and Who's Who in Education.

LECTURES