Myron Wilson’s gift assures oral history program will continue at The History Center in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS — In September, Cedar Rapids Opera announced a new initiative, the Esther & Myron Wilson Vocal Competition, created with a gift of $100,000.

Over the years, Wilson and his late wife, Esther, have shared — a term Wilson prefers over “donated” — between $5- and $6 million with various local causes, including Indian Creek Nature Center, area trails projects, museums, Orchestra Iowa and the veterans’ Honor Flights to Washington, D.C.

An engineer who worked at Rockwell Collins for nearly 40 years before retiring in 1990, Wilson, who goes by “Mike,” also has volunteered with the Rockwell Collins Retirees and tutored in STEM projects in area schools, among other causes.

Daniel Kleinknecht, Cedar Rapids Opera’s founder and artistic director, described Myron Wilson as “generous, dedicated, consistent, community minded,” and Esther Wilson as “quiet, reserved, bold and also committed.” The couple had been married 72 years before her death on July 8, 2022.

“They are among our most generous, most consistent philanthropists,” Kleinknecht added. “They would do anything for the community, anything that they believed in, and they're great illustrations of what philanthropy is and can be.”

What’s happened since

And now Wilson, who at age 99 has witnessed nearly a century of history, has shared $335,000 with The History Center to endow the award-winning Oral Histories LIVE! program, renamed “Esther & Mike Wilson’s Oral Histories LIVE!”

The Wilsons have been supporting The History Center since 2010. They were major contributors to The History Center's Landmark & Legacy Capital Campaign that returned the Douglas Mansion back to its 1890s glory, where it serves as The History Center's headquarters, at 800 Second Ave. SE. One of the exhibit galleries is named in their honor.

And the couple had been sponsoring the oral histories program annually since it launched May 1, 2018, with photographer George Henry discussing his life’s journey.

“Mike, and Esther before she passed, were so enthusiastic about Oral Histories LIVE! They truly believed in the power of this program. They knew that it was capturing important stories that, without this program, would be lost to the ages. This gift now ensures that the program, as it evolves, is underwritten in perpetuity,” Jason Wright, The History Center’s executive director, said in announcing the gift.

Wright reached out to Wilson with this latest donation proposal.

“I actually contacted him, knowing how much he truly believed in the importance of this program,” Wright said, noting that Wilson “truly did not flinch” when asked to endow the program with $335,000.

“He said, ‘We need to do this.’ It wasn't, ‘Let's do this.’ ‘We need to do this.’ …

“The truth of the matter is, is that every day that goes by, another group of stories are lost to the ages,” Wright said. “And that's one of the things that Mike kept telling me every time I'd meet with him. He’d say, ‘Jason, you're never going to be without people to give their oral histories.’ I said, ‘That's the whole issue, Mike.’

“If this organization would have started in 1900, we would have so many great stories, and these stories create something that's gold for any museum. It's called primary source material, from the horse's mouth.”

The sessions are videotaped, and later transcribed by University of Northern Iowa students.

“That means that people wanting to research anything about Linn County history, they can come into our museum, they do a search and any of the oral histories that have some relationship to the topic they seek, those will pop up. And suddenly they can just see straight from those people that lived those experiences, what it was like. And for researchers, that's even more gold,” Wright said.

Wilson’s oral history

“We, I guess, sponsored all the oral histories, and it made me glad to have done that, because that’s a great program,” Wilson told The Gazette in mid-September, shortly after he had been the focus of the Aug. 29 oral history program at The History Center.

“It was a packed house, with the people whose lives they touched,” said his son, Frank Wilson of Cedar Rapids. “Most of the people who asked questions, Dad would greet them by name.”

“It was arguably one of the best ones ever,” Wright said.

During Wilson’s oral history conversation with Rob Cline, who serves as the interviewer for the live discussions at The History Center, one thing especially struck a chord with Wright.

“What surprised me is his authentic humility. He has had such a tremendous impact, and he kept brushing it off,” Wright said. “There are so many organizations that he has touched — he and Esther have both touched — and have helped along in such an extraordinary way. … He’s helped everywhere.”

In speaking of the couple, Wright added, “It’s just amazing how generous they are, and then the fact that they’ve invested wisely in so many wonderful organizations. …

“What could I not say about Mike and Esther, in her absence? Just the most generous hearts of this region, that I know.”

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com