Honoring an ATS Trailblazer: Rev. Gwendolyn T. Wilson
During the month of February, the Asbury Seminary Community took advantage of a long-overdue opportunity. ATS students, faculty, and staff had the chance to honor Rev. Gwendolyn Wilson, the first African American woman to graduate from Asbury. Tammy Cessna introduced her with a shortened version of the following biography in a chapel service on February 18, and Rev. Wilson herself gave the benediction.
When Gwen arrived at Asbury in Wilmore, there was another African American woman in attendance, Bernadette L. Barr, who had graduated as a nurse from Baltimore, Maryland. She did not finish her degree, but her presence led Gwen to believe that she was not the first. It was not until after she graduated that Gwen came to realize she held this position. She was informed as she had launched her journey in the United Methodist Church in the Western New York Conference. Gwen even called Asbury to find out if she was indeed the first African American woman to graduate, and the call confirmed the information.
Gwen was the first in her family to go to college as she attended State Teacher’s College in Buffalo, New York, became a teacher, and got married. But in 1980, she had a spiritual experience in the midst of a difficult time, which totally changed her life. While her family had roots in the Church of God in Christ, Gwen had chosen to go with the United Methodist Church because of their openness to women, but in her early days she just felt a strong need to know Scripture for herself. She went to a Christian bookstore in Buffalo and asked them if they knew of any good Christian colleges, and she was directed to Houghton College. After one year at their Buffalo campus, she spent an additional year at their main campus.
One day a friend of hers from Haiti told her to come to the student center where there was a representative from Asbury Theological Seminary. Gwen applied and was accepted with a scholarship, which took care of her tuition. As an older student (she was 40 when she was accepted), she asked the dean about having an apartment instead of living in the dorm. She headed to Asbury in a van and spent the first night with Ellie Mae Smith, a student from Mississippi. She did live in an apartment while at Asbury, and became involved in an African-American United Methodist Church in Lexington. The support of this church community was very important. They even helped raise money for her to fly back to meet with the Board of Ordained Ministry in New York.
While at Asbury, Gwen’s experiences were mostly positive. While she had one negative experience with a professor, leading her to drop the class, the positive experiences outweighed the negative. She worked in the Registrar’s Office updating information and had a good experience there. One of her most formative experiences came with a trip abroad to India, organized by J.T. Seamands. She did not have the full amount needed, but Dr. Seamands told her if she could raise $1,000, he would take her. During this trip she also got to meet Dr. Seamands’s father, E.A. Seamands. She had a wonderful experience in India.
During her time at Asbury, Gwen was involved in a car wreck, which totaled her vehicle and left her in the hospital. She remembers how the Dean of Students came and sat with her in the hospital. Fortunately, she came out of the wreck well, with the doctor telling her, “Your bones are as tough as you are!”
When asked about her experience as an African American at Asbury, when the overwhelming number of the community were white, Gwen noted that having the African American congregation in Lexington was important, but she also noted the presence of an African American retired military man, who lived across from the Seminary. He frequently had African American students to his house to help provide a community and encourage them. She also felt that being 42 years old when she was at Asbury helped a great deal. She had already gone through many experiences and had learned how to navigate within the cultural stresses of the time.
After graduating from Asbury Theological Seminary in 1987, Gwen went on to be ordained in the Western New York Conference of the United Methodist Church, and she was the first African American woman to serve in that conference. She retired from active ministry in 2005 and then spent ten years with family in Texas before returning to New York. COVID-19 hit the United States in 2020 and by 2023, Gwen was asked to help in pulpit supply for a local church. This became a part-time position, bringing her back into ministry late in life.
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