Lucy Wilson

Lucy Wilson (October 19, 1888 – September 22, 1980) was an American physicist, known for her research on theories of vision, optics and X-ray spectroscopy. She was also the first dean of students at Wellesley College. When Wilson was about 2, her father died and her mother took the young Lucy and her baby brother to live with their grandparents in Bloomington. Wilson and her family were Episcopalian. Wilson began attending Wellesley College in 1905, and attributed her choice of schooling to her high school mathematics teacher, Miss Ethel Cobb, also a Wellesley graduate (class of 1899).

At Wellesley, Wilson took classes in multiple subjects including psychology from Eleanor Gamble and physics from Sarah Frances Whiting.

She became a professor in physics and psychology in 1935. This dual appointment was a result of work in both perception and optics. The first year she worked more in psychology than in physics. She taught introductory physics course, optics, meteorology, and in conjunction with Helen Jones, a combined physics/chemistry course. A popular course that she taught was automobile mechanics. From 1938 she also held administrative positions, beginning with acting dean of the college in 1938 and then as the college's first dean of students in 1939. In 1945 she was named the first Sarah Frances Whiting Professor, a position created in honor of the Wellesley College physicist and astronomer Sarah Frances Whiting. Wilson retired in 1954, following which the senior class established a scholarship fund in her name.

Wilson died on September 22, 1980, in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Positions 1909-14 Assistant and Instructor, Mount Holyoke College 1917-20 Instructor of psychology, Wellesley College 1918-20 Instructor of physics, Wellesley College 1920-24 Assistant Professor, Wellesley College 1924-35 Associate Professor, Wellesley College 1935-54 Professor in physics and psychology, Wellesley College 1938-39 Acting Dean of College, Wellesley College 1939-54 Dean of College

Publications

Lucy Wilson, "The Structure of the Mercury Line, λ 2536," Astrophysical Journal, Volume 46, Issue 5 (December 1917): 340-354. Lucy Wilson, "Grace Evangeline Davis, Professor of Physics," The Wellesley Magazine, Volume 20, Issue 6 (August 1936): 435-436. Morrison, Edwin, L. W. Taylor, Frances G. Wick, Lucy Wilson, and Calvin N. Warfield, "Physics in a Liberal Arts Education," American Journal of Physics, Volume 3 (1935): 91-91. Lucy Wilson, "Our New Life" in Wellesley After-Images: Reflections on their College Years by Forty-Five Alumnae, edited and published by the Wellesley College Club of Los Angeles (United States: Anderson, Ritchie, and Simon, 1974), 3-5.