Matilda Dodge Wilson Day marks 10 years

In the earliest years of Oakland University, Matilda Dodge Wilson was a familiar presence in the lives of students whose campus her generosity helped create. She attended university events, welcomed students to Meadow Brook Hall and shared in the beginnings of the institution she established.

Their affection for her was hard to miss.

When Wilson turned 80 in 1963, students and faculty presented her with a 15-foot birthday card. The celebration included 35 roses – representing the average age of the university’s faculty – and an elaborate replica of Meadow Brook Hall that took more than 150 hours to create. The following year, a birthday card carried the signatures of 1,500 students.

Matilda receiving her Honorary Doctoral degree in 1963

Wilson had her own way of marking an important milestone. In 1963, she gave a diamond ring to each member of the university’s charter class.

The stories offer a glimpse of a relationship that was unusual even then. Wilson was not simply the benefactor whose name was associated with the young university. She was there to watch it begin.

Now, nearly seven decades later, generations of students have followed those first graduates onto the campus. This year, the 10th anniversary of Matilda R. Dodge Wilson Day celebrates the remarkable woman who made so much of it possible, as well as the legacy she left behind.

Long before there was an Oakland University, Matilda Dodge Wilson had built an extraordinary life of her own.

Born Matilda Rausch in Walkerton, Ontario in 1883, she graduated from business college and went to work as a secretary for Dodge Brothers Motor Car Company. She married John Francis Dodge in 1907.

Her life brought great wealth, but also profound loss. John Dodge died of influenza in 1920. Four years later, Wilson’s youngest daughter, Anna Margaret, died at age 4. In 1938, her son Daniel died at 21 while on his honeymoon.

Wilson’s influence would ultimately extend across business, public service, philanthropy and education.

She and Anna Thompson Dodge sold Dodge Brothers Motor Car Company for a record $146 million in May of 1925. The following month, Matilda married Alfred Wilson.

In 1931, she was elected to the State Board of Agriculture, the governing board of Michigan State University. Nine years later, Gov. Luren Dickinson appointed her Michigan’s first woman lieutenant governor.

Sen. Michael Webber at Oakland (Photo provided courtesy of Sen. Michael Webber)

“Matilda Dodge Wilson understood that leadership is about more than personal achievement. It is about using what you have to create opportunities for others,” says Michigan State Sen. Michael Webber. “Her generosity, public service and commitment to education left a legacy that continues to shape Oakland University and our state today.”

It was education that would become the foundation for Wilson’s most enduring contribution. In 1957, Matilda and Alfred Wilson donated their 1,400-acre Meadow Brook Estate, its buildings and $2 million to Michigan State University to establish Michigan State University-Oakland, which would later become Oakland University.

The gift was made by the Wilsons together, but Matilda’s fortune and accomplishments long predated her marriage to Alfred. Her Dodge Brothers interests had already made her a woman of considerable means and the company’s sale took place the month before they married.

What she chose to do with those resources would affect people she could never meet. The young university quickly became something more than an institution Wilson had helped finance. She became part of its life.

Students planned increasingly elaborate birthday celebrations in her honor. On her 81st birthday, a five-foot-tall cake featured a model of the newly constructed Baldwin Pavilion. On her 82nd, Wilson laid the cornerstone for the building that would bear her name, Matilda R. Wilson Hall.

Those celebrations reveal more than a charming chapter in OU’s history. They suggest how closely the university’s beginnings and Wilson’s own life were intertwined.

Beth Talbert

Longtime OU faculty member Beth Talbert became increasingly interested in the woman behind the university’s founding. “What struck me first was her generosity,” Talbert says.

Over time, as Talbert learned more about Wilson’s philanthropy, public service and personal life, that admiration grew. “To her core, I think she represented giving back,” Talbert says.

Wilson died in 1967, at age 83. By then, she had lived long enough to see students arrive on what had once been her private estate, new buildings rise and OU’s first class graduate. She had seen the beginning of what her gift could do.

Talbert first became interested in Wilson during her years working with students at OU. As director of orientation, she sometimes walked orientation leaders to Meadow Brook Hall. The more she learned about the woman who had lived there, the more compelling she found her story.

In 2016, Talbert was teaching about women and leadership and organizing the inaugural OU Women’s Leadership Institute conference. As she planned an event that would bring women from business, government and the university together, Wilson kept coming to mind.

“We’re talking about women and leadership at Oakland University,” Talbert remembers thinking. “Can we do something?”

She approached Webber, then serving in the Michigan House, about finding a way to recognize Wilson. As the two considered options, Webber suggested pursuing a legislative resolution.

The Michigan House adopted a resolution declaring Nov. 4, 2016, Matilda R. Dodge Wilson Day in Michigan, in conjunction with the Women’s Leadership Institute conference. The event concluded with a reception honoring Wilson and bringing together conference participants and public officials.

Talbert credits Webber with taking the idea through the legislative process. “I’ll take credit for saying, ‘Let’s do something,’” Talbert says, “but he did the work.” The resulting recognition helped put Wilson’s life and accomplishments back in the spotlight, something Talbert believes remains important today.

That spirit of remembrance has continued on campus in other ways. In 2018, Oakland University unveiled a life-size bronze statue of Wilson between the Oakland Center and South Foundation Hall, a fitting tribute to the woman whose generosity made the university possible. The statue was brought to life with support from OU alumni and friends, including members of the university’s early graduating classes who had personally known Matilda.

Matilda R. Dodge Wilson Day is Nov. 4

In the years since, members of the OU community, including the Women Employee Resource Group, have continued to recognize Matilda Dodge Wilson Day by decorating the statue on Nov. 4. The tradition offers a visible reminder that Wilson’s legacy remains part of campus life.

“Matilda Dodge Wilson was a trailblazer in public service, education and philanthropy, but perhaps her greatest legacy is the opportunity she created for generations to come,” says Webber. “Nearly 70 years after helping to establish Oakland University, her vision continues to change lives.”

In recognition of the 10th anniversary of Matilda Dodge Wilson Day, Oakland University invites alumni, faculty, staff and friends to help preserve this history by sharing their own memories of Wilson or the ways they have experienced her lasting presence at OU.

To share your Matilda Dodge Wilson memories and stories, visit https://bit.ly/4yDOP3p.