[1] When Wilson's college football career was cut short due to an ankle injury, he studied medicine, finishing first in his class in 1954.
He served a rotating internship and a year in pathology at Charity Hospital, where he was drawn to the studies of neuropathology, neurology and neuroanatomy, and decided to become a neurosurgeon.
[3] According to Dr. Susan Chang, director of UCSF's neuro-oncology division, “[Wilson] was a visionary in how he built a multidisciplinary approach to studying brain cancer, linking basic science and clinical research together.
He was able to set up an infrastructure to test new therapies on tumors and spare patients the side effects of treatments.” [4] In 1985 Wilson became Tong-Po Kan Professor of Neurosurgery.
He raised money and determined policy for Clinic by the Bay, which offers free medical services to uninsured people in the San Francisco area.