Remembering Dr. Peggy M. Wilson

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO THE dr. peggy m. wilson memorial fund

Dr. Peggy Irene Mayfield Dunlap Wilson, an accomplished scientist, education advocate, and North
Texas civic leader, died in Belton, Texas, on December 29, 2024, at the age of 97.
Dr. Wilson was born March 24, 1927, in Austin, a descendant of Texas pioneers. Her parents, Isaac
Newton Mayfield and Ella Lou Lockwood Mayfield, encouraged her devotion to education.

She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with Honors in 1948 and a Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1952. She was a post-doctoral fellow and special instructor at the University in 1952-53 while she sought a position as a research chemist.
Overcoming persistent professional barriers to women in the scientific community, she became the first woman Ph.D. at Magnolia Petroleum Company (later Mobil Oil Corporation) in 1953. With a salary of $625 per month, she observed years later that “I was in the next-to-highest pay bracket for women in the country. The top bracket was held by movie stars, famous strippers, and select nocturnal women.”
She was the author of technical patents in the United States, Canada, and Europe, although for 25 years she was not allowed to go to the oil fields.

After moving to Cedar Hill, she was an organizer and leader of Cedar Hill’s economic development program beginning in 1991; first woman to serve on the Cedar Hill City Council (1994-96); and first recipient of the Cedar Hill Chamber of
Commerce’s 2001 Golden Cedar Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 2012, the City of Cedar Hill honored her with a Distinctive Character Lifetime Achievement Award. A member of the Republican Party since 1967, she was a Republican National Convention Platform Committee Member from Texas in 1972 and was named Outstanding Republican Woman of Texas in 1973. Dr. Wilson was a leader in early efforts to enhance science teaching in Dallas schools and contributed to
establishment of Dallas County community colleges. She was the first woman to serve as a regent of East Texas State University (now Texas A&M University at Commerce). In recognition of her lifelong dedication to science and education, in 2021 the Cedar Hill Independent School District dedicated the Dr. Peggy M. Wilson STEM Center as a magnet school for secondary students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Dr. Wilson was preceded in death by her first husband, Ray Dunlap; and her second husband, W.W. “Bill” Wilson. She is survived by a stepson, Wallace “Wally” Wilson and his wife, Mary Straw, of Lutz, Florida; their daughter, Erin Wilson, of Austin; and cousins including Dick Mayfield of Temple, Marjorie Sims of Terrell, Cathryn Harris of Austin, John Mayfield of Belton, and Jimmie Hill of Katy.

Memorials may be directed to the Dr. Peggy M. Wilson Memorial Fund of the Cedar Hill ISD Education
Foundation (CHEF).