Florence A. Wilson, M.D., of Newton Upper Falls, Massachusetts passed away suddenly on June 4, 2006.
Dr. Wilson co-authored with Duncan Neuhauser, Ph.D. Health Services in the United States, which through two editions (1973 and 1982) was a widely used textbook in medical colleges throughout the United States. The journal Drugs in Health Care described the book as “unique in that many of the facts it presents are not readily available on the personal bookshelf of the average health practitioner.”
After earning her B.A. from Cornell University in 1949, she was awarded her M.D. from Cornell University Medical College in 1953, at a time when only six women were allowed to enter her class. She received her residency training at Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester Medical Center (1954-1956) and at the New York Hospital at the Cornell University Medical Center (1958-1960). In 1956 and 1957 she was a French government fellow at the Paris Hospitals.
She served as an instructor in medicine (1960-1962) and as a clinical assistant professor in medicine (1963-1969) at the Cornell University Medical College. She was an assistant professor in Health Services Administration at the Harvard School of Public Health from 1970 through 1977. True to her social convictions, she was long affiliated with the neighborhood health center system, working with the Mattapan and Neponset Community Health Centers and the country’s first community health center, the Columbia Point Community Health Center, now the Geiger-Gibson Health Center, retiring from medical practice in 1999. She was exceptionally beloved by the AIDS patients whom she treated at the Fenway Community Health Center at a time when the disease didn’t have a name. During her long tenure the health centers relied on her to fill in whenever they were unexpectedly shorthanded.
She was an attending physician at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City (1962-1969), director of St. Vincent’s Hospital Medical Care Project (1962-1969), assistant in medicine at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (1973-1974), a physician at the Anthony Jordan Health Center in Rochester, New York (1978), and an affiliate staff member of the Carney Hospital in Dorchester (1981-1994).
Dr. Wilson was born in Johnson City, New York on March 22, 1928 to the late Charles S. (Pete) Wilson, Jr. and Orlean (Kelly) Wilson. Her grandfather, Dr. Charles S. Wilson, was the founder of the Charles S. Wilson Memorial Hospital in Johnson City, now the Wilson Regional Medical Center. She was the sister of the late Charles S. Wilson III and an aunt of Pamela Sue Mueller and her husband, Donald, of Panacea, FL; Charles S. Wilson IV and his wife, Marianne, of Lake Bluff, IL; Jane Elizabeth Sage of Fox Lake, IL; Thomas E. Wilson and his wife, Joanne, of Lake Bluff, IL; Patti Lynn Carlsen and her husband, Keith, of Gurnee, IL; Michael D. Wilson and his wife, Ann, of St. Charles, IL; and Steven J. Wilson of Lake Bluff, IL.
Dr. Wilson was a cousin of William Kelly and his wife, Mary, of Binghamton, NY; Shirley O. Kelly of Ft. Pierce, FL; Beverly Kelly-Johnson of Phoenix, AZ; Jeannine Judkins of Arden, ONT, Canada; Marion VanVorce and her husband, Leon, of Binghamton, NY; Robert Kelly and his wife, Shirly, of Upland, CA; William G. Kelly, of CA; and Charles S. Wilson IV, of Jersey City, NJ. She is also survived by many grand-nieces and grand-nephews, along with dear friends and housemates Jan and Susan Huffman and their family.
The funeral will be at the Eaton & Mackay Funeral Home, 465 Centre St., Newton Corner, Massachusetts on Friday, June 9 at 9:00 AM followed by a Mass of Christian Burial in Mary Immaculate of Lourdes Church at the corner of Elliot and Oak Streets in Newton Upper Falls at 10:00 AM. Relatives and friends are kindly invited. Visiting hours will be at the funeral home on Thursday from 4:00 to 8:00 PM. There is a parking lot adjacent to the funeral home. Interment will be in Newton Cemetery, 791 Walnut Street, Newton Center. Memorials may be made to the Wilson Regional Medical Center, 33-57 Harrison Street, Johnson City, NY 13790 or to National Public Radio 635 Mass Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20001.