Smithtown Resident Donald Wilson--A Fascinating Life

By Thomas Lederer

During his 87 years of life, former Smithtown resident Donald Wilson was perceived by many to be a mild mannered, unassuming jack of all trades. Few of those around him knew that he had also played professional baseball in the Boston Red Sox organization; that he had solicited a host of global dignitaries and industrial magnates to join him in his efforts to start a professional woman’s ice hockey league; that he had invented and built a prototype for an electronic device to identify airport luggage; that he had singled-handedly designed and constructed a variety of retail automotive facility projects.

In life, Donald Wilson was truly an aspiring entrepreneur who exuded resilience and strength, to a point where there was a presumption among those who knew him that he would go on without end. Those who learned after the fact that Donald Wilson had passed away were truly shocked that ultimately there was battle in which he could not prevail.

Mr. Wilson was available for anyone who needed his help or a word of advice, or who had a few minutes to listen to fascinating tales of his multifaceted life. It was the height of irony that so few of the thousands of people who he had touched during his lifetime were aware of his passing, hence this belated tribute. Donald Wilson succumbed to metastatic prostate cancer in October 2021 at the Luxor Mills Pond Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in St. James, fittingly located directly across the street from a baseball field.

Donald Wilson was born on the island of Kingston, Jamaica in the British West Indies. He attended the Alpha Industrial School for Boys under the auspices of the Sisters of Mercy. Very much involved in sports as a child, he was scouted by the Boston Red Sox and signed to a contract to play for the Grandy Red Sox in Grandy, Quebec. He went on to pitch for the famous Indianapolis Clowns and the New York Black Yankees in what were then called the Negro Leagues. His career with those teams came to a premature conclusion after an altercation resulted in his getting both of his arms broken.

In a conversation prior to his death Mr. Wilson indicated that drinking and alcoholism were rampant problems on those teams. He said there was drinking before and after games, that players had flasks in the dugouts during the games, drinking on the bus rides, drinking in their off hours. He said that some of the players were illiterate and had very little concept of money. He recalls getting paid $375 every two weeks and some of the players had great difficulty making that money last. One particular player consistently drank up most of his income and would then go to Donald Wilson for loans. Donald was slight of build and was admittedly intimidated by the much larger player who persisted in bullying money from him. When Mr. Wilson finally said “no” to the shakedowns, he was attacked by the player on the bus with a baseball bat. He credits the bus driver with saving his life although, he did sustain two broken arms in the attack and that essentially ended his professional baseball career.

During the time that he played baseball in Canada Donald Wilson became fascinated with the sport of ice hockey. Later on in his later years, he spent more than ten years trying to establish a professional international woman’s ice hockey league. His reason for focusing on the women’s sport was that he was convinced that—pound for pound—women hockey players had as much if not more strength and dexterity as the men. The personalized license plate on his Lincoln convertible was “IWPIHL” which stood for the International Women’s Professional Ice Hockey League, an organization that Donald Wilson conceived, but never got off the ground.

There was a point in December 2015 when doctors were advising Donald Wilson that his cancer had metastasized to so many parts of his body that further treatment was futile, that he might not even survive that holiday season. Despite that ominous warning, he proceeded to partake in a potentially dangerous clinical trial with a uranium derivative Xofigo. Typical of Donald Wilson, he defied what he viewed as a narrow perspective from others, and survived and thrived for another six years, driving, shopping, and watching his son Michael play scholastic sports. During some difficult times while fighting his illness Mr. Wilson received financial support and guidance from his former employers from the Atlantic and Empire Automotive Groups.

Donald Wilson is survived by his wife Lia and son Michael of Islip Terrace.

Editor's Note: Thomas G. Lederer wrote for the NY Times from 1979-1999. He also worked with Donald Wilson at the Atlantic Automotive Group for five years.