Wilson joined UAH in 1972 as faculty in the Deparment of Biological Sciences and served as the Dean of the College of Science from 1984 until his death in 1991. The photograph shows members of his family viewing the portrait.
Shown in the photograph, left to right: President John F. Kennedy, Robert C. Seamans, Wernher von Braun, James E. Webb, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert S. McNamara, Jerome D. Wiesner, and Harold Brown.