“W” is for Wilson, Charles Coker [1864-1933]. Architect. After graduating from the South Carolina College with a degree in civil engineering, Wilson began his architectural career in Roanoke, VA. By 1896 he was in Columbia and practiced in the firm of Wilson & Edwards. He was also Columbia’s city engineer and superintendent of the waterworks. Between 1904 and 1907 he made repairs to and rebuilt parts of the South Carolina State House. In 1914 he became the first 20th century South Carolinian to be named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, after having been elected the South Carolina chapter’s charter president the previous year. Charles Wilson Coker was the first chairman of the South Carolina Board of Architectural Examiners from 1917 to 1933 and helped draft the state’s first building code.
Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.