Originally from Cuba and raised in Jamaica, Winston Wilkerson lived in Great Britain and, in the late 1950s, moved to the United States. He began working as a lab assistant in the Department of Physics at The Cooper Union School of Engineering in 1960. He was then promoted to physics technician, serving in that role until the termination of the physics degree program in 1976. In 1988 he became the first director of Cooper Union’s Audio-Visual Resource Access Center, a position that he held until his retirement in 2008.

Among his many other roles and duties, Wilkerson acted as archivist and guardian of Great Hall history. His efforts to preserve thousands of recordings over decades enabled the eventual creation of the digital archive, Voices From the Great Hall. This resource has proven invaluable not just to the historical record of The Cooper Union but to journalists, artists, documentarians, and other researchers from all over the world, according to Archives Librarian Mary Mann.

Wilkerson also was an author on scholarly research including a 1993 paper in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America that he co-authored about acoustical problems in the Great Hall, examining the reverberation times in the room, and a 2005 paper in the Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers about introducing urban high school students to astronomy and astrophysics as part of a National Science Foundation Young Scholars Summer Research Internship Program at Cooper. 

When not working, Wilkerson dedicated much of his time to his passion for amateur astronomy, in part through his membership in the American Association of Variable Star Observers, traveling internationally at times to pursue this interest. He also also volunteered with his local community board in Manhattan and, together with his late wife, Carmen, had been involved with a scout association in Jamaica. In addition to his interest in the sciences, he was a lover of music, history, and gardening. He is survived by family and friends who will miss his gentle spirit and sense of community.

Following are just a few remembrances from alumni and colleagues.

"He was an engineer, an avid astronomer, and a perfect English gentleman, not to mention like family to me, and one of my mentors."
—Paul Tummolo, manager, AV / Multimedia Services at The Cooper Union

"He singlehandedly protected almost forgotten historical recordings of what unfolded in the Great Hall, intending that they would one day come to good use. Because of Winston’s actions, they most certainly did."
—Steven Hillyer AR'90, director of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture Archive and project director of the Voices From the Great Hall Digital Access Project