Ed W. Wilson
December 8, 1946 – January 30, 2014
Rev. Ed W. Wilson, 67, of Beaumont, died Thursday, January 30, 2014. A Service of Remembrance and Gratitude was held on February 9 at Lake Shore Baptist Church.
Ed was Minister of Music at Lake Shore until 1991 when he became Minister of Music at Calder Baptist Church in Beaumont.
A native of Amarillo, Ed was the first of three children born to Margaret Seibel Wilson and Frank Poyntz Wilson, Jr. on December 8, 1946. He graduated from Tascosa High School in Amarillo and studied at Austin College in Sherman, earning a BA in music. He taught music at Tennyson Junior High, South Junior High, and Jefferson-Moore High School.
When Ed came to Lake Shore in 1973 as Organist and Director of Youth Choirs, he surely had no idea all the ways he would serve the congregation. In 1975 he was hired as Minister to Youth. In 1978 he was hired as secretary for the summer. Somewhere along the way he was also custodian. In 1980, he was called as Minister of Music and ordained at Lake Shore two years later.
Claiming his call to ministry, Ed earned his MDiv degree from Brite Divinity School at TCU. For 18 years, Ed served Lake Shore with his “whole heart.” He was children’s choir director, composer, mission trip sponsor, gardener, cook and bottle washer for many a meal, camp counselor, wordsmith, healing presence, good and faithful servant of God. He had the hospitality and welcoming spirit of St. Benedict and the musical gifts of Rogers and Hammerstein with a touch of Bach.
Ed’s gifts at the piano never failed to take worshipers to a holy place. “Ed took what the world gave him and he gave beauty back,” says a former staff colleague. One choir member said, “When we finished each song, and it went well, Ed would close his eyes, take a deep breath, and smile. From the look on Ed’s face, we could see that our singing had become true worship, and a choir member can ask for nothing more than that.”
Family members who survive him include his son, Matt Wilson and his wife, Kim, of Waco; daughters, Amye Wilson and her boyfriend, Daniel Hartfield, of Austin, and Erin Wilson Chrisman and her husband, Bill, of Valley Mills; foster daughter, Sherrill Brooks Magnuson; brother, Jim Wilson and his wife, Jayne, of Kansas City, Missouri; sister, Pamela McAffrey and her husband, Terry, of Amarillo; grandchildren, Holly Chrisman, Hailey Chrisman, Chrissy Chrisman, Kaitlin Wilson, and Zachary Wolfe; and one granddaughter on the way, Sophia Annette Wilson.
A benediction Ed set to music for Lake Shore is now our blessing for him: “Depart now, and as you go, remember . . . it’s in the goodness of God that you were born into this world, and by the mercy of God you have been kept all through the day, and through the love of God, seen in the face of Christ that you are being redeemed, Amen. Amen.