Joseph C. Wilson

Who was Joseph C. Wilson?

Joseph Chamberlain Wilson was the founder of the Xerox Corporation, a graduate of the University of Rochester and a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He helped to develop xerography pioneered by Chester Carlson.

As president of Xerox, he made an effort to integrate Xerox during the late 1960s. After the race riots that began in Detroit had reached Xerox headquarters in Rochester, New York, Wilson wrote in a letter to all Xerox managers that "he wanted a very aggressive program to recruit and hire blacks in this company."

The former West High School in Rochester, New York was renamed Joseph C. Wilson Magnet High School in his honor. One of its magnet programs is for science and technology, and has a long-running partnership with Xerox, which funds and supplies mentors for an extracurricular computer science club. Wilson Magnet has long had a very strong program of Advanced Placement courses, and later also began offering International Baccalaureate courses.