Presbyterian Historical Society Records Archivist David Staniunas interviews Robert E. Wilson, vice-moderator of the 217th Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly in Birmingham, Alabama, 2006. Wilson was born on January 23, 1939 in Gastonia, N.C., and raised in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Barred from professional employment by segregation in North Carolina, Wilson found federal civil service work at the Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, N.J., in 1961. He and Patricia Isles were married on June 17, 1961. The couple joined Ironia Presbyterian Church (Ironia, N.J.) in 1963. Wilson retired from the federal civil service in 1995. In 2001, he served as president of the National Council of Presbyterian Men.