Robert W. Wilder Papers

Background on Bob Wilder

Born in Enfield, Mass., on August 18, 1933, Robert Wayne "Bob" Wilder knew the hardships of poverty as a young child. The son of Joseph Edward Wilder, Jr., a laborer from old Yankee stock, and his second wife Beulah (Turner), an Eastern Abenaki woman originally from Maine, Bob was raised in Smith Village during the depths of the Great Depression. Rarely traveling further afield than the neighboring town of Ware, the family scraped through the Depression until 1938, when they, like all the residents of Enfield, were evicted to make way for the Quabbin Reservoir.

The trauma of losing their farm and relocating miles from home affected Wilder deeply. Settling among several of their former neighbors in Warren, Mass., the family started over, though as poor as ever. After attending grammar school in Warren and graduated at the top of his class from Brookfield High School in 1951, Wilder joined the Marine Corps, determined to escape the poverty he had always known. A bunkmate of Red Sox star Ted Williams and comrade of the golfer Lee Trevino, he made the most of his time in service. Excelling as a Marine, Wilder gained practical experience in engineering that became the basis for his future career, also earning an associate's degree in military science and hydraulics from the Marine Corps Institute in Quantico, Va.

When he left the Corps in 1960 with the rank of Staff Sergeant, Wilder secured a job in the aerospace industry, working for many years as a quality engineer and rising from production foreman to chief inspector while working on projects related to NASA's moon mission. Retiring at only 52, he returned to Brookfield, where he had the good fortune of running into a woman he had met in town many years before, Nancy Cronin. She became his wife.

A gifted storyteller fascinated with local history, Wilder drew upon his rural upbringing while working for Old Sturbridge Village as an interpreter in their farming operations. Haying, milking, blacksmithing, and working ox teams were part of his repertoire. Wilder was an active member of the Quaboag Historical Society, the Swift River Historical Society, the Friends of Quabbin, and the Ware Chapter of the Marine Corps League, and emerged as a popular lecturer on regional history, giving talks on everything from the Boston Post Road and King Phillips War to life in the Quabbin towns. Wilder died in Brookfield on Nov. 29, 2015, nine months after his beloved wife Nancy.