‘He loved Mississippi.’ Dick Wilson, Air Force pilot and Coast mover and shaker, dies
Military veteran and Gulf Coast community leader Dick Wilson died Monday morning. He was 91.
Wilson was born on June 5, 1930, in Wabash, Indiana. In high school, he lettered in four major sports his junior and senior years and received a partial athletic scholarship to Indiana University.
Wilson graduated college in 1953 and began his Air Force career just a few years later. During his career, Wilson flew 368 missions in Vietnam.
Wilson also served as a test pilot and worked in Area 51 during his military career.
“I knew many colonels and none of them in my view were as close to being as wonderful of an officer in the Air Force as he was,” said Roland Weeks, an Air Force Veteran and friend of Wilson. Weeks is a former publisher of the Sun Herald.
Wilson ended his career working at Keesler Air Force Base as a lieutenant colonel where he retired in 1976. He and his family then decided to stay on Coast and made Biloxi home.
Ricky Mathews, host of Coast Vue, said Wilson fell in love with Mississippi when he was at Keesler.
“He loved Mississippi, and one of the things that he wanted to do when he came is ... to just absolutely immerse himself in the community.”
After he left the Air Force, he owned Wilson’s Fish Camp, served on the Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce and was president of the Biloxi Chamber in 1995.
He helped found the annual Veterans Day Parade and worked to bring the Mississippi Vietnam Veterans Memorial to life in Ocean Springs.
“I think the minute Dick got to Biloxi through his Air Force career, he got involved with the community, and he is a very long-time member — a very active member,” said Adele Lyons, CEO of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce.
To reward his service along the Coast, he was named the recipient of the Pat Santucci Award in 2019.
“He was so excited that the community just recognized him for all the work he had done over the years, and just to be part of the group that had been past recipients,” Lyons said. “He was really honored and humbled by that and I was so glad we were able to do that for him.”