Around Cal

Berkeley Magazine, Fall 1998




FORMER CHIEF OF PUBLIC CEREMONIES DIES

Garff Wilson, the self-described "unidentified man on the right" who once welcomed kings, presidents and other world figures to Berkeley, died May 6 in Berkeley. He was 89.

Over the course of 33 years, Wilson was professor of rhetoric and dramatic art as well as head of public ceremonies. He retired in 1976.

Early in his Berkeley career, Wilson designed a campus visit for poet Robert Frost, followed over the years by visits from two U.S. presidents, seven kings, six prime ministers and countless other newsmakers.

Notables whose visits to campus Wilson planned and directed included President Harry S. Truman, Gen. George C. Marshall, Adlai Stevenson, Jacques-Ives Cousteau, Alex Haley, Barbara Tuchman, Dylan Thomas, the kings of Denmark, Greece and Morocco, and the queen of Holland.



Garff Wilson

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