"My grandfather on my mother's side was a professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; my other grandfather was a lawyer, and one time Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives." -- Kenneth G. Wilson
Kenneth George Wilson (1923—2003) was an author, professor of English and vice president at the University of Connecticut. His best-known work is The Columbia Guide to Standard American English, published in 1993.
Through the 1970s Wilson served as UConn's vice president for academic programs or academic affairs. With the 1974 change in title, the vice presidency replaced the provost as the university's chief academic office. He had been dean of the university's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 1966 to 1970 and head of the English department in 1965-66.
"Many of his contemporaries credit Wilson with starting the process of making UConn a nationally respected university," a university press release [1] and the university magazine, Advance, said at the time of his death in 2003. [2]
Wilson returned to teaching in 1981 and retired in 1989. He had joined UConn's Storrs campus faculty in 1951 as an instructor and rose to be a full professor. A graduate of Albion College in Albion, Mich., Wilson earned his master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan. He was a native of Akron, Ohio.
He is the subject of an article in Contemporary Authors (December 2007) by Thomson Gale.
When the Columbia Guide was published online by Bartleby.com in 2001, the site said of Wilson's book: "A vigorous assessment of how our language is best written and spoken and how we can use it most effectively, this guide is the ideal handbook of language etiquette: friendly, sensible, reliable, and fun to read."
The electronic edition continues to be offered through licenses to libraries and other institutions.
The Guide has 6,500 entries, including both descriptive and prescriptive examples. The electronic edition features 4,300 hyperlinked cross-references.
In the book's introduction, Wilson called standard American English usage "linguistic good manners, sensitively and accurately matched to context ... to listeners or readers, to situation, and to purpose."
"In 1975 I met Alison Brown and in 1982 we were married. She works for Cornell Computer Services.""In consequence, science is more important than ever for industrial technology.""Industry now should become a full partner of government in supporting longrange basic research.""My father was on the faculty in the Chemistry Department of Harvard University; my mother had one year of graduate work in physics before her marriage.""My graduate studies were carried out at the California Institute of Technology.""One other hobby of mine has been playing the oboe but I have not kept this up after 1969.""Scientists under all forms of government must be able to participate fully in international efforts.""The hardest problems of pure and applied science can only be solved by the open collaboration of the world-wide scientific community.""The Nobel award occasions a unique celebration of the vision of science by the public at large. The prestige the prize confers today is largely due to the extraordinary diligence of the Nobel committees.""The scientist's inquiry into the causes of things is providing an ever more extensive understanding of nature.""Through this additional support, we must renew our commitment to provide talented young people with the opportunity to build scientific careers based on their curiosity, the same opportunity that was provided to me when I began my work.""While at Cal Tech I talked a lot with Jon Mathews, then a junior faculty member; he taught me how to use the Institute's computer; we also went on hikes together."
Essays on Language and Usage (1962) with Leonard Fellows Dean
Harbrace guide to dictionaries (1963)
The Play of Language: A Revision of Essays on Language and Usage (January 1971, September 1971, ISBN 0195013042) with Leonard Fellows Dean, and W. Walker Gibson
Van Winkle's Return: Change in American English, 1966-1986 (June 1987, ISBN 0874514118)
The Columbia Guide to Standard American English (1993, May 1999, ISBN 1567312675), from 2001 to June 2009 available for free online at Bartleby.com
As Editor:
Models in Plant Physiology and Biochemistry by David W. Newman, Ph.D. (October 1987, ISBN 0849343429)