Looking at Lone Star College-North Harris up close reveals more than 1,100 employees fulfilling the college's mission at LSC-North Harris and LSC-East Aldine Center. Their collective experience and dedication make the college a standout in higher education. One of those employees is Jon Wilson.
Students in professor Jon Wilson’s history classes would be surprised to learn that his path to becoming a teacher didn’t begin until he was 40 years old. It took a life filled with twists and turns to land Professor J, as he’s become known around Lone Star College-North Harris, right where he belongs.
For a history professor, Wilson’s story couldn’t have begun any better. He was the youngest of five children born to Tillman and Josephine, who were civil rights leaders. In fact, Wilson’s first moments in life were already tied to the civil rights movement.
Born in Alton, Ill., a small industrial farming town, Wilson’s birth made history by desegregating the hospital’s maternity ward at a time when African American children’s births were relegated to the basement.
Wilson’s parent’s stance led to the Ku Klux Klan burning a cross in their front yard one night while the family sat up with weapons.
Inside the home, though, there was nothing but love.
“I found my big brothers so fascinating with their world travels, myriad accomplishments, and their loving ways toward me, the baby of the family,” Wilson said. “I was spoiled to death by all. My big sister was the best babysitter of them all; we had a ball.”
Wilson’s parents served as two of his greatest influences in life through their differing personalities. His father provided him with an example of strength and determination, while his mother, who matched his own personality and temperament, played an essential role in his upbringing.
“My mother took me to see Faust, Rudolph Nureyev, theater, opera, and encouraged me to pursue my passions,” Wilson said. “She taught me kindness and compassion, and she nourished my natural curiosity.”
However, despite growing up in a family with a grandfather who had his master’s degree, teachers on both sides of his family, a sister who would become a professor, and a healthy amount of curiosity, art, and culture, this background still didn’t fully translate to the classroom.
“I loved class and never skipped, but I didn’t fully apply myself,” Wilson recalled.
Wilson had varying interests, from flying Cessna planes to theater, dance, and often ‘borrowing’ the family car.
Despite all this, Wilson found himself finishing high school with multiple academic scholarships, which doesn’t seem at all surprising for someone now teaching college history. Before Wilson would ever think of teaching a course in college, he would first have to make it through his courses as a student, which would prove much more challenging than it would seem.
“I went to, and flunked out of, perhaps as many as 10 colleges and universities around the country,” said Wilson. “This was the era of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. We protested war, challenged the National Guard and rejected the ROTC and wearing a tie and jacket to dinner. I come from an activist family, but I was a ‘slow bloomer’, as my youngest daughter describes me.”
Life for Wilson began to take a major shift when he was 20 years old. With no success attending college, and no regard for his own protest to the move, his father sent Wilson 300 miles south to Memphis to live with his oldest brother and work in the family construction business.
With the sex, drugs and rock n’ roll left behind, Wilson founded a theater and art gallery from scratch. He oversaw the Beale Street Repertory Company and the Joseph A. Marley Gallery, named after one of his grandfathers.
The next and perhaps the most defining chapter of Wilson’s life picks up two decades later. After being involved with organizations, community boards, and committees where he was the only person without a college degree, he sent out resignation letters for his positions.
Wilson was tired of hearing “what about school?” from his mother and sister every time they spoke.
“I reached a stage in life where I had the realization that I was sometimes talking about ‘gonna wanna do’ and resolved that I was going to begin doing those things in life that I wanted to do, including going back to school,” said Wilson.
At age 40, Wilson liquidated his assets, took out student loans and became a full-time student at Houston Community College.
While attending HCC, Wilson’s natural speaking ability was spotted by his first history professor, Dr. John Moretta, and then again as a student at the University of Houston by two more professors, Drs. Kairn Klieman and Joe Pratt.
Seeing a future professor inside of Wilson, who was double the age of the traditional college student, Klieman and Pratt created opportunities for Wilson to explore a path in higher education while studying for his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees.
Stops along the way at Prairie View A&M and the University of Houston occupied Wilson’s time before a colleague told him about a position with LSC-North Harris, which was an unknown college to Wilson.
“I interviewed with then history chair Dr. Jim Good and expressed the fact ‘…that place felt really good,’” he recalls. “It still feels good.”
The student-centered leadership and campus culture have kept Wilson with LSC-North Harris for just over a decade.
His role at LSC-North Harris goes far beyond teaching history. Wilson is the assistant men’s soccer coach for nearly seven years and has delivered many keynote and motivational speeches for various campus, system and regional events.
Wilson knows better than anyone the struggles students face to begin college and come out the other side with the knowledge of what they want to do in life, which is why he is so passionate about passing on life lessons to go along with his history lessons.
“School is not simply about getting a good education to get a job,” he notes. “School is about knowledge, exposure and enlightenment. Doing well is not about I.Q.; it’s about effort, so stop telling one’s self what ‘can’t’ be done.”
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