He was the George Sansom Professor of Chinese History at Columbia University from 1947 to 1976.
Born in Dayton, Ohio, Wilbur went at an early age with his parents to China, where they worked with the YMCA.
His first job after receiving his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1941 was with the Field Museum, in Chicago, where he prepared for publication a study of plant migration left by Berthold Laufer after his death and developed a monograph on slavery in the Han dynasty.
His focus of research was Republican China, especially the career of Sun Yatsen and the rise of the Nationalist Party.
by Joshua A. Fogel and William T. Rowe, Westview Press (1979) ISBN 978-0-89158-091-1 [1]