William Albert "Bert" Wilson (1933–2016)

Born September 23, 1933, in Tremonton, Utah, William Albert "Bert" Wilson grew up in Downey, Idaho. From a family of homesteaders, railroaders, storytellers, and farmers in Marsh Valley, Bert was the first to attend college, majoring in English at Brigham Young University (BYU). His three-year mission to Finland for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the mid-1950s set the course for his distinguished career as a folklorist and his cherished marriage and family life with Hannele Blomqvist.

No ivory tower scholar, Bert Wilson has been an architect and builder whose work, with wit and warmth, encompasses critical thinking, writing, leading, teaching, and mentoring. Bert's scholarship illustrates a unique form of peer review because most of his later publications originated in presentations and invited lectures that colleagues wanted to see in print. He published for a wide audience, exemplifying his tendency to build for and champion the future.

Bert did not instigate the study of Mormon folklore, yet his scholarship from an active member's perspective brought a bold, humane, believing point of view. David Stanley pinpoints Bert's abilities: "To me, he was remarkable in that he saw Mormon culture both affectionately and objectively, and he communicated to all a deep tolerance for the quirkiness and inherent contradictions of human behavior, Mormon and non-Mormon alike."¹ Bert published numerous articles on Mormon folklore, some of which were compiled in The Marrow of Human Experience: Essays on Folklore (2006). The Folk Belief and Religious Folklife Section annually awards the William A. Wilson Undergraduate Paper Prize in his honor.

Bert is part of the great generation of folklore scholars who studied at the Indiana University Folklore Institute in the 1960s, when government funding amply supported educational endeavors. He returned to instigate new folklore courses at BYU even as he battled cancer while completing his dissertation, which was later published as Folklore and Nationalism in Modern Finland (1976).

Bert's scholarship exemplifies his keen intelligence and his affinity for Finnish language, lore, literature, and people. Elliott Oring writes that his research and book "engaged the issue of politics and folklore long before any other folklorists got interested in these matters" (email communication). Some of Bert's claims about Finnish folklore and nationalism were controversial, but he received honors from the Finnish government and literary societies for his clarity and insight. Associate Jussi kemppainen writes of Bert: "We have lost one of the best FINNS ever to walk on earth. Bert loved our mutual country, he knew more about our history, our culture, our beliefs than anybody I know." ²

As successor to Austin Fife at Utah State University in the mid-1980s, Bert developed a vibrant folklore archives and program before returning to his own folklore archives and coursework at BYU, where he also chaired the English department and then directed the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies. He was editor of Western Folklore (1979–1983) and received numerous accolades, including the Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Scholar Award (1990) and election to the Fellows of the American Folklore Society (1984).

He taught his students not only throughout his life, but also about life, as indicated by email correspondence from colleagues and former students. Steve Siporin identifies the scope of Bert's teaching: "Even those of us who weren't his students, were his students. And not just as students of folklore but as students of how to live a good life." Danille Christensen audited Bert's last graduate seminar, and "he became an important mentor during his retirement." Just weeks before Bert's death, I had three students presenting at the Western States Folklore Society meeting. Of their presence, Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt wrote: "There is the chain present, which in Hebrew is la'dor va'dor, from generation to generation." Such continuities mattered to Bert, who strategized and asked for them.

Bert Wilson died on April 25, 2016, in Provo, Utah, after an extended illness. His scholarship and life championed the underdog, whether that would be Finland, his Idaho homeland, Mormonism, folklore...