Wilson Compton earned his doctoral degree from the department of history, politics, and economics at Princeton University in 1915. He then taught economics for one year at
Dartmouth College before going to work for the
Federal Trade Commission. During this period, he wrote several papers on the economic challenges facing the nation's lumber industry. In 1918, the National Lumber Manufacturers Association, a trade group now merged into the
American Forest and Paper Association, was reorganized and invited Compton to become its first secretary-manager. He held that post until 1944, building the organization into a prominent one with substantial power in the lumber industry. Under the Oberlaender Trust of the
Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation, Compton was part of the 1934 group of American lumberman who toured Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia to observe and study forest management in Europe. On August 21, 1944, the Board of Regents of the State College of Washington, today
Washington State University, named Wilson M. Compton as the college's fifth president, succeeding President Ernest O. Holland who retired after 28 years of service. Compton led the institution through a period of growth following
World War II as military veterans used their GI Bill benefits to attend college. Under his leadership, many academic and administrative aspects of the college were modernized, and an Institute of Agricultural Sciences and an Institute of Technology were established to enhance services to the industries of
Washington state. Major buildings added to serve the growing campus were the Todd Hall classroom building, Dana Hall engineering building, Holland Library, and the student union building that would carry Compton's name. In April 1951, in the midst of a state financial crisis, the Compton presidency ended. Between 1952 and 1953, Compton was Director of the International Information Administration (IIA), the forerunner of the United States Information Agency (USIA), within the Department of State. WSU history professor George A. Frykman depicted the Compton presidency as "a brief but exciting era in which the institution moved rapidly toward university status" in his centennial history, "Creating the People's University: Washington State University, 1890-1990." ==Recognition==