Dr. Ben J. Wilson, who served as Chairman of Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center in the 1950s, died on Feb. 14. A Renaissance man, he turned in his scalpel for sculpting tools after retiring and crafted several life-size statues, including “The Mentor” at Zale Lipshy University Hospital.

Dr. Wilson, 94, led UT Southwestern’s Department of Surgery from 1952 to 1960, as well as serving as Chief of Surgery at Parkland Memorial Hospital. A former resident at Parkland, he is among 18 surgeons honored as Giants of General Surgery in the new Parkland Hospital.

“Dr. Wilson was a great teacher because he made you realize how extremely important it was to do your best by the patient under all circumstances,” said Dr. Robert McClelland, Professor Emeritus of Surgery, who was mentored by Dr. Wilson.

Dr. Wilson was the inspiration for the Wilson Society named in his honor, a student-run surgical interest club at UT Southwestern that focuses on first- and second-year medical students. The society provides students interested in general surgery and the surgical subspecialties with more insight and information, practical skills training, and mentoring programs.

Dr. Wilson was a well-respected sculptor, working in bronze, stone and marble. His works can be seen in libraries, Indiana University buildings, and hospitals, including Parkland and Zale Lipshy. His works include the near life-size bronze statue of a physician in a lab coat that is located in the breezeway between Zale Lipshy and the Charles Cameron Sprague Clinical Sciences Building on UT Southwestern’s South Campus.

The sculpture, commissioned by Dr. Ronald "Skip" Garvey, then Chief Executive Officer of Zale Lipshy, who had once been a student of Dr. Wilson, was funded by Margaret McDermott, a former patient of Dr. Wilson's and Chair of Zale Lipshy's art committee. “The Mentor” serves as a physical representation of his passionate belief in a physician's devotion to his patients, as embodied by his own mentor, Dr. Carl Moyer. Dr. Moyer served as an inspiration for the statue and preceded Dr. Wilson as Chief of Surgery at Parkland.

Dr. Wilson was born in Kokomo, Indiana, in 1920. He attended Indiana University, where he studied medicine and graduated medical school in 1944. After an internship and residency at Eloise Hospital in Michigan, Dr. Wilson served two years in the Army as a medical officer in Japan, before moving to Dallas to complete his residency at Parkland. In 1960, he moved his family to Colorado to establish a private practice and begin a secondary career as a farmer and cattle rancher, while pursuing outdoor activities such as skiing, fishing, and camping. He later became chief of surgery at St Mary’s Hospital.

In his later years, Dr. Wilson served as caretaker and restorer for Redstone Castle, a manor now in the National Register of Historic Places, took up scuba diving, making trips around the world with the Earthwatch Institute to do scientific research, and helped coach high school wrestling, a passion from his college days. 

An online memorial is available.