Wilson, a long time figure in the Athens and surrounding areas, passed away Monday, November 29, 2021. He was and will continue to be an inspiration to those he came in contact with not only at the races but in his everyday life. The below article was written by Bob Slowpants and published in February 2007.
One never knows if Wilson Page will appear at the start line in the standard over sixty race wear or as the “a brief-ated Wilson”. Wilson sets the pace in body fax content and race wear for the senior running community. I once asked Wilson how he maintained his physique, and he responded by going to the gym for an hour a day-especially after races when the rest of us are taking naps. Wilson has a series of non power lifting exercise that he repeats for fifteen repetitions per session. After attending one of Wilson’s Labor Day brunches, I am convinced the secret to his success is his self discipline as opposed to clean living.
Long a fixture among the gentile southerner aristocrats in Athens, Wilson grew to manhood in Hartwell, GA where his father was mayor from 1948 to 1952. After a hitch in the Army as an intelligence specialist from 1967 to 1970, Wilson migrated to the University of Georgia. Wilson is very specific that the intelligence operations that he participated in while on active duty are still classified.
Unlike most of the party animals that never left UGA, Wilson stayed because he was paid to do so as the records manager or archivist for the university from 1972 until 2000. Wilson and one assistant toiled with cubic feet of paper for twenty-eight years. As opposed to the number of documents or shelf space, Wilson acknowledged that his office received five thousand cubic feet of paper to process per year, and maintained a permanent collection of fifty-five thousand cubic feet. The organization over time moved from the fourth floor of the campus library to a building at the corner of Whitehall and Milledge Avenues to accommodate the ever increasing storage capacity demand.
One importance at UGA for those twenty-eight years was determined by whether Wilson shredded your document output or not. Wilson organized the UGA archives as it exists today with the assistance of four MBA candidates that he oversaw instilling the process of establishing the flow and storage of documents as it exists today. As testament to Wilson’s skill and attention to detail and the guidelines for document retention that he established, his assistant was promoted to succeed him. Wilson in retirement has maintained his shredding skills in the event that Col. Oliver North is recalled to active duty and needs an aide de camp.
Although never married, Wilson is much the ladies man as one can tell from his smile when he observes the attractive race wear of the opposite sex as well as the non runner female attendees at his brunches.
Bob checking out from the back of the pack.
R.I.P. Wilson, you will be missed!