Helen Wilson was honored for her ability to create order from chaos.
“Plunge her into a whirl of activity ― the more complex and varied the better,” her citation read.
She created order during more than 20 years in several administrative positions in the College of Arts and Sciences, first at the extension program in the Evening College, then the Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense before moving to the Institute for the Arts and Humanities.
Wilson, who retired in 1992, was credited with helping to establish the institute in 1987, a program which brings together faculty to share different viewpoints and perspectives from myriad disciplines within arts and sciences.
The citation said her quiet, understanding presence and selfless work was vital in the process of creating the institute.
“All agree that she, with her personal warmth and generosity, her insightful and useful ideas, and her careful, unwavering attention to detail, was a sine qua non of the institute’s successful birth, growth and present health.