Earl L. Wilt was born in Dacoma, Okla., in 1940. He was the sole first grader in the small elementary school at the age of five. Wilt’s family moved to Alva the following year, where he attended school from second grade through his senior year. Upon his high school graduation, Wilt attended Northwestern Oklahoma State University and earned a degree in natural science with a minor in education in 1962. Wilt accepted his first teaching assignment in Sawyer, Kan., where he taught science and history for four years. In 1966, he began working in Jet, Okla., as a science teacher and later as the principal and superintendent of Jet Public Schools. In 1967, Wilt received his master’s in education from Northwestern.
Wilt received further education at Eagle Lake Biological Station in Susanville, Calif., in addition to ecology studies in Aspen, Colorado.
Wilt’s favorite subjects to teach were biology, chemistry and botany. He was known to run a “tight ship” and took many students to summer camps out of state. Wilt enjoyed this way of learning, taught to him by Dr. Dan Shorter and other professors at Northwestern. Wilt’s focus was consistent to enhance quality education and motivate highly functioning students in northwest Oklahoma. This scholarship will help fulfill Wilt’s desire to encourage students who are in the field of natural science to enter teaching and/or to make productive use of science training.
Wilt married Lynn (Von Gunten) Kinnamon in 1991. After 30 years in education, he retired in 1992. Wilt passed in 2024.