Mr. Wilson was born in Asheville, North Carolina, and attended Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa, Florida, and Yale University, followed by a year's study at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, before returning to earn a graduate degree from the University of Virginia. He taught at the Lovett School in Atlanta, the Asheville School in Asheville, Madison Area Technical College in Wisconsin, and the Tower School in Wilmington before becoming the associate head of the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore in 1997. In 1999 Mr. Wilson became the seventh Headmaster of St. Albans School.