Francis Wilber; Ex-Head of Trade Tech College

Francis Parker Wilber, 94, former president of Los Angeles Trade Technical College. A native of Minnesota, Wilber served as a lieutenant in the Navy during World War II. He was head of the industry-oriented Trade Tech junior college from 1955 to 1969 when enrollment was about 15,000 students a session. Well-respected within his profession, Wilber was a popular speaker for local business groups and was named chairman of the curriculum commission of the American Assn. of Junior Colleges. In 1961, he was named to a six-man delegation to the former Soviet Union in a cultural exchange sponsored by the National Science Foundation. There, he reported, he found trade schools inferior to those in the United States, but was impressed by how those schools worked together with industry in area economic councils. After his retirement, Wilber turned to watercolor painting and writing books about art in advertising, including “The Lettering Craftsman” and “The A.B.C.’s of Lettering.” On Feb. 24 in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.