Today's Featured Biography

 
L. Wilson Wilson

Six years of higher education, obtaining a BS in Business from UC Berkeley (1972) and a
JD from the Washington College of Law at the American University in Washington, D.C. (1977)

Happily Retired after forty years of lawyering, working mainly in hard fought trial practice, representing people who really needed help, taking the good side of cases, declining the bad. This work has been a privilege, but I am here to testify that the Law can be a real bitch. It has all been living real and living large. I’ve seen noble and deserving men triumph, and seen others just as fair wrongly beaten down, by thieving means and methods; by pig-headed, prejudiced, and mean spirited juries; and by the best and worst of judges, all men and woman, proud, frail, and prone to sin and error. I proudly did my best to help my clients win, and sometime just to survive, or to get back up and try again. I practice eclectic business law and litigation, which mean explaining to poorly educated, bored and indifferent jurors how some poor fool has been ripped off by those who are more cunning, in more privileged positions, or more intent on causing harm. Met lots of really nice, interesting people, good and bad. Its been an inside view of the world at work, in commerce, industry, and how things really happen. I have had the privilege of working on large cases, from airline mergers, disputes building electric power plants, all sorts of constructions, and various business deals, bankruptcies of huge companies such as Mirant (was I the “godfather” or just the “gadfly” but shareholders recovered about a billion dollars) to Calpine and Lehman. So, while I do not know what most of you have been doing for the last 40 years, I have spent most of its working.

And thanks be to God, I have a wonderful wife, who has kept me, praise be to God Almighty, despite my frequent and persistent sinful ways. Such are the blessings of a Good Church where forgiveness is so readily attainable. My sweet, smart, sexy, lovely, clever wife has helped me survive, nursed the last twenty-five years of my injuries and ills, and been my very best friend the entire time. She even gave me two great kids, the matched set, both of whom are much better people than either one of us. As parents we are proud and pleased.

I have frequently traveled, under well worn passports, over much of four continents, yet my very favorite place on this planet is a little old farm, up a long dirt drive, at the very top of the valley, surrounded by primeval forest, under the big Blue Ridge. The sugar cove farm. You are always welcome and its that kind of place, where good people are always welcome. Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, kids of all ages. Horses, fishing, shooting, riding and hiking. Playing manhunt on warm summer evenings, hoping you won’t lay down on fresh horse poop or a copperhead snake. Outdoors is wonderful, my very favorite place. Walking, hiking, biking, climbing, skiing, swimming, paddling, riding, trotting and cantering outdoors is all good fun. Galloping is nothing less than terrifying, hanging on for dear life, but I do it still, chasing hounds chasing coyotes, tearing across thousands of acres of the beautiful outdoors! That’s how much fun I have and hope you each and every one of you have fun too. “Life is fun” was a lesson we knew well and should all take with us as we go, which would be my first good wish for all of you.

I was a very diligent Scoutmaster. Who would have guessed that. I had my own first born, plus 25 more of his closest and dearest best pals, mischief makers and conspirators all, from about age 5 to 19, which made the years of my fatherhood absolutely magnificent. The BSA was a great way we kept on top of it and we raised this huge mob of young boys into well educated gentlemen.

My daughter was a somewhat different story, taking after my wife, always exciting, challenging, and smarter than me. She is what I would call a “real pistol”, and she can shoot the wings off a fly, so be careful. But she came out even better than her brother and is truly the finest young person I know!

Love, love, love. That’s all we really need, even if we never really understand what love is. Keep cool with the rest of it. Don’t let them drive you crazy or they’ll shut your business down. Lessons in life we learned at PHS.

Please remember your geography. Georgia is toward the East, which is where the sun comes up, and only a few thousand miles away. Atlanta is an actual city, much improved since General Sherman left, with paved streets, running water, electricity and all sorts of modern conveniences, but it still get warm on a Summer’s afternoon. If any of your ever travel this way, or become lost trying to get to Tahoe or Reno, then be sure to give me a call, as I am always good for a dinner, or a drink, or even cash bail money, and we always have a spare bedroom for any old friend.

My best regard to all.

Yours truly,

Matt

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