Welcome Wilson Sr., real estate mogul and former U of H Board of Regent, dies at 95

Welcome Wilson Sr., who has served as a member of the University of Houston System Board of Regents, worked as a real estate developer and acted as a civil defense chief, died Friday. He was 95.

Wilson was born in San Angelo in 1928 before he moved to Houston, where he graduated from the University of Houston with a bachelor of business administration degree in 1949, and he married his college sweetheart on the same day. He would go on to be drafted for the Korean War, serving in the Navy. Graduating first in his class in officer’s school, Wilson worked as a naval officer for two years in Japan after World War II.

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He served as chairman of the Welcome Group LLC., a real estate development firm that owns and leases facilities around the country. In the 1950s and 60s, Wilson worked on Jamaica Beach and Tiki Island, master-planned communities that are now cities in Galveston County.

Wilson served in the Executive Office of the President under Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy in the 1950s and 60s, and witnessed the atom bomb and hydrogen bomb tests. He was later appointed as Special Ambassador to Nicaragua by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

In 1958, Wilson was awarded the Arthur Fleming Award as One of the Ten Outstanding Young Men in Federal Service, joining the recipients like Neil Armstrong and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

In the 1960s, after he had served as assistant to Houston Mayor Roy Hofheinz, Wilson helped with efforts to desegregate lunch counters in downtown Houston, and he would go on decades later to be a supporter of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, which protected transgender Texans from discrimination. The ordinance was revoked in 2015.

During his career Wilson owned 10% of the Houston Astros baseball team and was on its board of directors. He also served as chairmain of two Houston banks.

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Wilson, who served as chairman of the University of Houston System from 2007 to 2010, recruited Renu Khator as president. He also worked to establish the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication.

“Welcome Wilson was a true titan whom I was honored to work with and humbled to call a friend,” Khator said in a news release. “The personal guidance he gave me was invaluable and his support for the UH System and UH laid the foundation for the success that our students and community reap today and will for years to come.”

Wilson, an author, was chairman Emeritus of the UH Political Action Committee when he died.