Lexington Rotary Club elects first Black president

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ/Press Release) – The Rotary Club of Lexington has elected Bill Wilson as its 2021-22 club president.

Wilson becomes the club’s 106^th president since it was established in 1915 and first African American to lead the Rotary Club of Lexington in this position.

Wilson succeeds Jamie Schrader who served as the club’s president during the 2020-21 club year.

As a child and adolescent, Wilson was one of the first African Americans to break down racial barriers in Lexington schools and public facilities.

He graduated from Kentucky State University with a double major in history and political science and a minor in sociology with an eye to a career in law.

Instead of pursuing the law as a vocation, he was accepted into a new Counseling and Psychology Program at UK, received a master’s degree, and was certified as a marriage counselor, which helped prepare him for his future as chair of the Board of Trustees at Kentucky State University and chair of the Planning Commission of Lexington-Fayette County Government.

Wilson enjoyed a diverse career working in many sectors. History teacher, public television executive, executive director of the Thomas Hunt Morgan Institute of Genetics (where he could focus on genetic counseling and educational programs on sickle cell disease), and a stint in New York with Cambridge Publishing Company (a division of the New York Times Company) and then the Media Division of Esquire magazine.

He ultimately returned to Kentucky and KET to become deputy executive director of Educational Outreach, which lead to a KET-produced distance learning program for 3,000 students from all over the US, the first such program in existence.

Wilson retired as the associate vice president for development and major gifts at Kentucky State University.

“We are thrilled to have an individual of Bill’s caliber lead our club to new heights,” said executive director Peggy Trafton. “He is a visionary and a man of integrity with decades of knowledge of the critical role Rotary plays in the world.”