Robert (Bob) Craig Wilson became a paraplegic due to an accident while serving in the US Navy, learned to play golf while navigating on his prosthetic limbs and taught others to do the same. (
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Robert (Bob) Craig Wilson, a descendant of Mathews family members who once owned Apshawa Mountain, lost both his legs in a tragic accident while he was serving as a naval aviator aboard the USS Kitty Hawk. He transformed his personal tragedy into a lifelong commitment to support other paraplegics through encouragement, inspiration and teaching them to play golf, His grandmother was Amanda Mathews Perry, who bought Ashawa Mountain property from her brother, John F. Mathews. The site where she built her “Skycrest” home is now owned by Michiko and Don Rupnow.
Bob saw three tours of duty in Vietnam aboard the aircraft carriers USS Yorktown, Hornet and Kitty Hawk. On a bright, sunny afternoon in the fall of 1974 he lost both of his legs in a flight deck accident on the deck of the Kitty Hawk. He inadvertently stepped into the path of a steel cable traveling over 130 miles an hour. The cable was attached to an aircraft carrier tailhook, a device that drags streaking F-4 fighter jets to a fast stop. When it hit the 33-year-old flight deck officer, it took off both his legs just below his knees. In a split-second Bob became a double amputee who would spend the rest of his life walking on a pair of artificial legs.
Fighting overwhelming odds, he eventually put his life back together. He built a worldwide organization to teach disabled people to triumph over their handicaps by mastering golf game challenges. With his oldest son born just a month before the accident he worried how he would provide for his wife Nancy and their family. Fighting against many odds, Bob learned how to walk on two prosthetic limbs and went back to work, signing on as a counselor for injured disabled veterans at the Veterans Administration. He stayed at the stressful, difficult job for eight years. He retired as a U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander in 1974. Before his injury, Bob was a golfer who won contests. Inspired by a magazine cover honoring a National Amputee Golf Championship winner, he was determined to meet new challenges. As a paraplegic, he wanted to return to the sport and teach other paraplegics to golf. While living in California, he became actively involved with the National Amputee Golf Association. Moving to New Hampshire in 1988, he was elected as the group’s Executive Director. He founded the first Swing Learn to Golf program, teaching paraplegics how they could golf. In addition to his work for NAFA, he became editor and publisher of Amputee Golfer, a magazine directed to amputee golfers around the world. He was involved in conducting the first Swing Clinics for people returning from Iraq and Afghanistan at Walter Reed Army Hospital, Brooke Army Medical Center and Fort Carson. Colorado. The clinic involved teaching pros and rehabilitation specialists how to teach their patients the sport. During his lifetime Bob helped form the British, South African, Australian and Canadian Amputee Golf Association.
Bob inherited the kind of strength and fortitude that helped his Mathews ancestors cope decades ago with the isolated Apshawa mountain wilderness. I remember visiting the Wilson chicken farm in Wayne with my parents and seeing Bob working hard at chores to help his parents. My mother (Verina Mathews Genader) and her cousin (Robert Baer Wilson) recalled happy times they had in their youth at Lake Apshawa, built by Verina’s father, John F Mathews.
Bob was an amputee for 44 years. Broken soldiers finding it difficult to face another day were comforted by being around this man who conquered his darkest times and devoted his efforts to healing people in need. He died at age 77 on March 22, 2018. Burial was in the New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery, Boscawen N.H. Besides his wife Nancy, he is survived by two sons, Craig and Alexander Wilson, their wives and four grandchildren. His sister Stephanie Wilson Lucas, 79, passed away in Bradenton Florida in 2021. Stephanie served in various administrative capacities for several major corporations before becoming Administrative Assistant for First Lady Patricia Nixon, wife of President Richard Nixon. Stephanie is buried at Cedar Lawn Cemetery, Paterson.