His father was an amateur flutist and clarinetist and his mother was a pianist who had earned money for his family accompanying silent films during the Great Depression.
His grandfather was a doctor in the small town of Rushville, Nebraska located near the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and thus the family had opportunities during visits to interact with the local Sioux community.
As a boy, Wilson developed an interest in photography and at the age of 12 he began working for the Lincoln regional office of the Natural Resources Conservation Service as a photo lab technician.
He later pursued further studies in that field with Milton Babbitt, Mario Davidovsky, Otto Luening, and Vladimir Ussachevsky at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.
In 1992 Wilson produced a concert in honor of the studio with works from many of the University's composition students at the time, including Evan Chambers, Leslie Hogan, Michael Angell and others.
His students include John Burke, Katt Hernandez, George Crumb, Andrew Paul MacDonald, Evan Chambers, Frank Ticheli, and Gérard Pape.