Carroll Wilson leaving the library

A fixture around the library, the emcee of the Bambi Awards and the head of circulation, Carroll Wilson is retiring from the duties of the library and may slow down a little, but probably not. Many will miss his service to the library, his willingness to help, and a smile that can’t be replaced.

But working at the library was not his original profession, one from his days as a senior at Amarillo High School. He was into cars, big time, spent lots of money on them; He was looking to get out of high school his senior year, so he decided to take easy courses, and didn’t plan on going to college.

A girl he grew up with asked him to be on the student newspaper. He wasn’t motivated but thought what the heck and attended the newspaper organizational meeting anyways.

He was surprised. “The new journalism teacher was a brunette goddess, 22 years old and a recent graduate of Texas Tech,” Wilson said. “I’ll be on your staff,” were the first words out of his mouth.

He went to Amarillo College majoring in journalism. This was the time of the Vietnam War, and going to college meant you had a deferment until you left college. His sophomore year he got a part-time job at Amarillo Daily News working 20 hours a week which progressed to 40 hours a week at night at a regional West Texas newspaper.

Often times, his boss would tell him, “Go out to Spearman and don’t come back until you have three stories.” Spearman is a small town in West Texas of about 3,000.

As a young newspaperman he was given the jobs no one else wanted to cover, late at night stories, stories in the bad part of town. He was all of 110 lbs.

He was given the assignment to cover the NAACP meeting during the heat of the summer with riots cropping up across the country, Watts, Detroit and other ghettos. During the meeting “the local NAACP called to burn down Amarillo until they get their rights back. I had visions of this little white boy winning the Pulitzer.”

“I excitedly got back and explained the situation to the editor.” Soon, the editor, owner of the paper, Amarillo’s mayor, police chief and other important people met behind closed doors. The story was canned.

In his senior year of college he became a member of the ROTC in order to not go into the service. It happened that he was inducted into the army but luckily worked on army publications in the states.

A man of many talents, he became the Executive Director of an environmental group, a TV Reporter for KFDA-TV, in 1982 he received his Master of Political Science and then received his PhD. in Technology. Next he got a job at West Texas University.

He returned to journalism as the Assistant Managing Editor of the Times Record News in Wichita Falls, became the Managing Editor from 1987-95 and then Editor from 1995 to 2007. He received a buy-out from the paper and next became the managing Editor of a daily, the Temple Times until 2011 when he arrived in Wimberley.

He won’t be bored, though, volunteering for the Wimberley Library, the Rotary Club and others.

“I’ll be putting ads in the View, working on websites and using my experience. That’s my plan.” Visiting and spending time with his kids is also on the agenda. They are located in Canyon Lake, Houston and around Austin.

Being a newspaperman, he is concerned about the future of printed news but thinks local newspapers will be around for a time.

“Community newspapers tell about who died, who was born, who is running for mayor, school district attendance and boundaries. There is a future for them,” Wilson said.