Bill Wilkins was a faculty member and administrator at Oregon State University from 1961 until his retirement in 1994. He was appointed an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department in 1961 and served as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts from 1982 to 1994.
A native of Texas, Wilkins earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Texas A & I University and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas. His college education was interrupted by four years of active duty in the Air Force, including a combat tour in Korea. He remained in the Air Force Reserve until his retirement in 1982 as a colonel.
Wilkins was active in politics and served as chair of the Benton County Democratic Party and co-chair of the 1968 Robert Kennedy presidential campaign in Benton County.
During several leaves from OSU, he worked as a staff economist for the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee and as an associate administrator for policy and international aviation affairs with the Federal Aviation Administration. He served as president of Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences.
The Bill Wilkins Papers consists of materials generated and collected by Economics Professor Bill Wilkins that document his research, teaching, and administrative career at OSU as well as his posts as administrator with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and as a staff economist with the U.S. House of Representatives. The bulk of the materials were assembled by Wilkins in the process of his research and writing and include certificates, conference papers, correspondence, nametags, newspaper clippings, manuscript drafts, meeting minutes, photographs, plaques, posters, publications, speech transcripts, and studies. The Papers also document Wilkins' participation in professional and aviation-oriented organizations and political campaigns. The photographs are primarily portrait images of Wilkins and also include a photograph album documenting Wilkins' visit to Russia in 1980 for the FAA.
Collection is open for research.
Bill Wilkins Papers, Oregon State University Archives, Corvallis, Oregon.
This collection is not fully processed; this guide is preliminary.
The College of Liberal Arts Records (RG 143)include materials pertaining
to the Economics Department as well as the administration of the college. The
Archives holds several collections pertaining to agricultural and resource
economics including the Agricultural and Resources Economics Department
Records; the papers of