I was born on December 8, 1932 in Polk County Oregon but my father registered me in Salem, the county seat of Marion county. My father was Ralph A. Wilson Sr. and mother is Erma L. (Simmons) Wilson. I have two brothers: Ralph A. Jr. and Walter E. When I was 10 months old my parents moved the family to Marion County, six miles east of Salem.
We attended Bethel elementary school for the first eight grades and then Parrish Jr. High for the ninth grade and Salem High School for the 10th, 11th, and 12th. My High school graduating class was 1950. I then immediately went to Willamette University, majored in mathematics and graduated in 1954. I spent a graduate year at Willamette getting my "fifth year" teaching certificate for secondary teaching.
I taught one year (1955-56 academic year) as the head of the mathematics department at Ashland High School, Ashland, OR. Upon returning to Willamette for the summer of 1956 to nominally complete a Masters degree and wait for a draft notice for the Korean War, I was recruited into a position as Instructor of Mathematics at the then named Eastern Oregon College, La Grande, OR. Deferral from the draft was automatic for such a position. In the spring of 1959, Congress, motivated by the Russian "sputnic", appropriated megabucks for the retraining of secondary teachers of mathematics and science, and the educators of secondary teachers of mathematics and science. I was fortunate to be selected among the first generation of such educators and received a summer (1959) scholarship to Princeton University and a complete academic year (1959-60) at University of Illinois, culminating with an MS in Mathematics.
During the spring of 1960, I passed the qualifying exams for the PhD in Mathematics Education at U of I and proposed marriage to a classmate in the AYI, Virginia Latshaw, who was a middle school teacher from Pottstown, PA. We were married on August 30, 1960. I returned to Eastern Oregon College as Assistant Professor of Mathematics in the fall of 1960 and Virginia took a position as mathematics teacher at Helen McCunne Jr. High in Pendelton, OR.
I continued doctoral studies during the summers of 1961, 1962 and 1963, passing the exams in Russian and German languages on the way. The 1963/64 academic year was a sabbatic year from EOC served at The University of Illinois and completing course work and passing final written exams for the PhD. Reseach was begun in spring of 1964, dissertation submitted and final oral exam passed in June of 1966. Meanwhile in the fall of 1964 I accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Mathematic Education at Oregon State University.