MDN File Photo Dr. Herbert Wilson, who began serving the Fort Berthold Reservation one year before the bottomlands were flooded, is shown with a patient in December 1991. Wilson died Monday at the age of 99.

“It’s a sad day – the loss of a great man,” Marilyn Hudson, Parshall, a longtime friend of Dr. Herbert J. Wilson, said Tuesday upon hearing the news of his death.

Wilson died Monday in a Bismarck nursing home. He was 99 years old.

Well-known in the Fort Berthold Reservation area, Wilson was a physician on the reservation for more than 40 years, first at Elbowoods and then at New Town, until retiring from his practice in 1995. He and his wife, Lilian, then moved to Bismarck.

“He was my first employer. I had just turned 18 years old and worked one summer for him in New Town in his original clinic,” recalled Hudson.

Wilson’s education at Harvard University was interrupted by World War II when he was inducted into the military. His service time included in England. Wilson wrote about his wartime experiences and other memoirs in a book, “The Memoirs of Dr. Herbert Joslin Wilson. In Search of a Purposeful Life.” He donated a copy of his book to the Dakota Territory Air Museum in Minot.

After his military service Wilson returned to Harvard where he graduated and then went to Tufts College medical school in Boston to complete his medical degree.

Hudson said Wilson, a native of Vermont, and his wife, Lilian, a native of England, moved to Fort Berthold Reservation, first to Elbowoods and then to New Town.

“He really developed the medical plan for Fort Berthold Reservation. He set up contract health care in the various communities,” she said.

Hudson said Wilson once told her his wish was to work in an American embassy as a staff member. He didn’t work for an embassy but Hudson said, “In the long run he did,” meaning he fulfilled that type of work in the local area.

Dr. Monica Mayer, New Town, North Segment councilwoman to the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation business council, worked for Wilson for two summers, in 1984 and 1985, when she was in pre-med school.

“It was a real learning experience. I learned a lot from him – hard work and compassion. He really inspired me to pursue a degree in medicine,” said Mayer, who went on to obtain her medical degree from the University of North Dakota School of Medicine.

At the time, she said, there weren’t that many women, let alone minorities, pursuing degrees in medicine but Wilson inspired her to believe she could do it.

“He had a real compassion for people. He was so kind,” she said. Among those who depended on him, she said were the local police who always knew if there was a wreck or some other incident that “he was there for them.”

Wilson was given his Indian name, “One Who Heals” by the late Luther Grinnell, a Fort Berthold resident, some time ago.

Mayer, who serves the North Segment (New Town) in her capacity as councilwoman, said Wilson’s clinic building had to be demolished and it is making way for the development of a park – the Dr. Wilson Park. Its anticipated completion is this summer.

“He was very special and an inspirational person for me,” Mayer said, adding, “He was very important to a lot of people.”

Bismarck Funeral Home, Bismarck, is in charge of funeral arrangements for Wilson.