Ray Wilson; San Diego News Anchor, Director

Ray Wilson, 77, a fixture on San Diego station KFMB-TV for 35 years. Wilson, who served as news anchor and later news director, joined the station in 1952, three years after it went on the air. He left the anchor chair in 1973 and retired in 1987. During his last few years at the station, he was on the air as Larry Himmel’s comic sidekick on “San Diego at Large.” Wilson appeared on screen as a cowboy, an Arab sheik, a punk rocker and a wino--all in a day’s work, he claimed, because “everybody in the news business has to have a little bit of show business in his blood.” Nicknamed “Chief,” Wilson was known for his combed-back black hair, chipmunk cheeks and darting gray eyes behind horn-rimmed glasses. He began his career in radio, working in Berkeley, Denver, Salinas and San Diego. He served in the Army during World War II. On July 15 in San Diego of complications of cancer and heart disease.