Joseph Chamberlain Wilson (December 19, 1909 – November 22, 1971) was the founder of the

Xerox Corporation Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (having moved from Sta ...

, a graduate of the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants Undergraduate education, undergraduate and graduate degrees, including Doctorate, do ...

and a member of the

Delta Kappa Epsilon Delta Kappa Epsilon (), commonly known as ''DKE'' or ''Deke'', is one of the oldest fraternities in the United States, with fifty-six active chapters and five active colonies across North America. It was founded at Yale College in 1844 by fiftee ...

fraternity (Beta Phi chapter). He helped to develop

xerography Xerography is a dry photocopying technique. Originally called electrophotography, it was renamed xerography—from the roots el, ξηρός, label=none ''xeros'', meaning "dry" and -γραφία ''-graphia'', meaning "writing"—to emphasize ...

pioneered by

Chester Carlson Chester Floyd Carlson (February 8, 1906 – September 19, 1968) was an American physicist, inventor, and patent attorney born in Seattle, Washington. Carlson invented electrophotography, the process used by millions of photocopiers worldwide. Ca ...

. As president of Xerox, he made an effort to integrate Xerox during the late 1960s. After the race riots that began in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

had reached Xerox headquarters in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...

, 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 (AP) courses, and later also began offering International Baccalaureate (IB) courses. It is often honored for excellence; in the late 1980s it was ranked the ninth best high school in

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

, the

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

in 2004 said it is "regarded as one of the nation's most intellectually demanding" schools. The Wilson Commons as well as Wilson Boulevard at the University of Rochester river campus are also named after Joe Wilson. The Wilson family continues Joseph Wilson's tradition of philanthropy in the Rochester area mainly through the Marie C. and Joseph C. Wilson Foundation. Wilson was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1980. Th
Joseph C. Wilson papers
were made available in May 2019 through the University of Rochester Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation library; they were given to the University by Marie C. Wilson. This collection consists of correspondence, minutes, reports, speeches, and clippings from Wilson's participation in numerous business and community organizations. The bulk of the collection is dated 1959-1971, a period of growth for Xerox as well as the city and University of Rochester.

References

External links

The Joseph C. Wilson papers
1909 births 1971 deaths American technology chief executives Businesspeople from Rochester, New York University of Rochester alumni Xerox people American chief executives of Fortune 500 companies 20th-century American businesspeople {{US-business-bio-1900s-stub

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