In Memoriam: Jacquelyn Wilson, MD, DHt

In Memoriam: Jacquelyn June (Jackie) Wilson, MD, DHt
May 17, 1941 June 1, 2020

Those who knew Jackie would understand the truth of this statement: Jackie marched to her own drum. She was forthright, irrepressible, and quirky. But she also was smart.

I first met Jackie in the late 1970s when my late mentor, the distinguished   homeopathic physician, Maesimund B. Panos, MD, DHt, of Ohio introduced us. Jackie was already very active in homeopathic circles. When she was the President of the American Institute of Homeopathy (AIH), she made a very significant contribution in that position with reorganization within the AIH Councils and composing an AIH Procedural Manual. She also participated in the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia Convention of the United States (HPCUS), in which she was a member since 1981, serving on the Pharmacopoeia Review Committee and on the Council on Pharmacy since their inception, making it 35 years of service in the HPCUS in 2015. Additionally, Jackie was active [as Vice President] in the Homeopathic Medical Society of the State of California.

When I was asked to make the presentation of the HPCUS Wyrth Post Baker   Lifetime Achievement Award to her in 2015, I interviewed some individuals, including an HPCUS Committee Chair, who said the following, Jackie has sometimes stopped the progress of a meeting by asking a difficult question. Yet those questions have often had the nucleus of an important perspective that committees needed to address to really move forward rather than glossing over the issues for the sake of moving forward. It is that willingness and courage to ask hard questions that makes Jackie’s contribution so valuable over time. At the time of that presentation, Jackie was already battling her malignant neuroendocrine cancer first found in her retina when she went for a routine eye examination. So, the presentation was done via Skype in front of the international membership of the HPCUS, many of whom did not know her; nevertheless, she forthrightly described her diagnosis and progress in her acceptance speech.

Born in New York City, Jackie was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and of the Sidney Kimmel Medical College, formerly the Jefferson Medical College of the Thomas Jefferson University, both of which are located in Philadelphia, PA.

While a medical student, she visited the Philadelphia Mutter Museum of the College of Physicians and Surgeons and discovered that Civil War soldiers carried a small personal first aid kit containing homeopathic medications.

In 1968, Jackie, then a fourth-year medical student, had become interested in more natural therapies, and met a Pennsylvania Hospital ER nurse familiar with homeopathy. That nurse took her to Boericke & Tafel’s Pharmacy in Philadelphia, which proved to be so fascinating that she purchased several homeopathic books. On reading those books, she was initiated into her lifelong involvement with homeopathy.

While Jackie’s parents owned and ran an Inn and restaurant in Warwick, NY, on completing her medical education and training, she wanted to live where the weather was warmer. So, she moved to and lived in and around San Diego, California most of the rest of her life.

Jackie was a practicing holistic physician for many years, dedicated to optimizing the health of all via the prescription of sustainable and non-toxic therapies, including homeopathy. Later on in her career, she served as a consultant to homeopathic drug companies, assisting them in producing new homeopathic remedies.

Sandra M. Chase, MD, DHt

Obituary: Jacquelyn June (Jackie) Wilson, MD, DHt

Dr. Jacquelyn J. Wilson passed away peacefully in her Banker’s Hill home on June 1, 2020, after a long illness. Known to her friends and family as Jackie, Dr. Wilson was a well-known homeopathic doctor who practiced family medicine in the San Diego area for over forty years.

She was born in New York City on May 17, 1941, and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey where she attended Ridgewood High. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and earned her M.D. from the Jefferson School of Medicine in Philadelphia before moving to San Diego. Her parents, John and Josephine Wilson, owned Warwick Inn in Warwick, NY. Jackie, as she was called by her friends, inherited her parents’ hard work ethic, intelligence, love of sports, and joy of entertaining friends. Jackie was very inquisitive from her teenage years, and both her brother and I remember my father bringing home for her a calf’s eye and a pig’s head from the butcher so she could dissect them.

In her early years of practice, Dr. Wilson became disappointed in what she called the cookie-cutter approach to medicine and became an advocate for a whole health approach. Introduced by a friend to the use of homeopathy in treating chronic disease, she embarked on a life-long study of holistic medicine and homeopathy which took her around the world. During her career, she served as President and Trustee of the American Institute of Homeopathy and held a number of positions in other homeopathic organizations. She was recognized by the Native American community for her work in holistic health and in Russia for her work in homeopathy. She contributed to many publications, participated in panels and taught world-wide to promote holistic and integrative medicine, including a clinical instructorship at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. Her students appreciated her straightforward style and dry sense of humor.

Dr. Wilson was proudly gay in a time when it was not accepted to be so. She was a pioneer in helping members of the LGBT community by serving on boards to help hospitals and medical professionals better serve all their patients, especially those who experienced being treated as less-than. She served on the Human Dignity Board in San Diego. She also promoted women’s rights and was one of the first contributors to the First Women’s Bank in San Diego.

Dr. Wilson loved being surrounded by people and had a gift for bringing people from all walks of life together. At the legendary potlucks in her Escondido home, she welcomed everyone, no matter their ethnic, religious, or political persuasion. Her companions and beloved friends included some of the country’s most respected homeopathic doctors, as well as neighbors, nurses, gardeners, artists, engineers, flight attendants, authors, and children, as well their pets.

Jackie is survived by her sister, Joy Wilson Sosler, and brother, John Wilson, and their children. She loved all her five nieces and her one nephew and got a kick out of doing outlandish things with them -such as having them babysit her instead of her babysitting them.

When she was diagnosed with a neuroendocrine carcinoid cancer, Jackie bought a lake house in Silver Lake, New Jersey, so she could gaze at the water and experience the seasons one more time. Her beloved friends and family often came to visit with help and support. In the last year of her life, Jackie returned to San Diego to her beloved West Coast family of friends who continued to enjoy her engaging conversations and cared for her until she passed. Jackie shared with them the belief that family is not only defined by name or blood but by love and care and the commitment you show each other. Jackie treasured all of this until the last moments of her life.

Her fascination with how we can heal with the support of nature and the love of those around us was evident until her last breath. Don’t worry about dying, she said. We will never be completely separate because we are all cradled in the arms of the universe.

Jackie will be profoundly missed by her many friends and family. As per Dr. Jacquelyn J. Wilson’s wishes, she has had a green burial and was interred in New Jersey’s Steelmantown Cemetery on June 9, 2020.

Submitted by her sister, Joy Wilson Sosler

A Reminiscence

I have known Jackie for over 35 years, including time spent in quarterly meetings of the Rhus Tox Study Group, with Dean Crothers, Jennifer Jacobs and Bob Schore. (see photo) Jackie was always outspoken, inquiring, whip smart and devoted to any and all methods of true healing. Dr. Chase and others have described well her long list of leadership positions in various homeopathic organizations and endeavors. As a gay woman medical student and physician, she had an uphill course from the beginning, and her strong spirit served her well in negotiating those turbulent waters. She was always a person of strong convictions, including her advocacy for diversity in organizations and respect for minorities and the disadvantaged.

Perhaps outspoken isn’t a strong enough word to describe Jackie, as she told me once that, growing up, her family enjoyed having intense discussions -arguments, as she described them -about various topics. Besides her ability to remain calm and even tempered in the midst of intense discussions, part of the consequences of that included the fact that she was very clear about her viewpoints and was unafraid to introduce her unique perspectives into whatever proceedings, often causing valuable expansion of discussions that seemed initially to be straightforward and simple. Legend has it that Julian Winston -another of our deceased luminaries and an equally strong personality -in the midst of a controversial NCH board meeting discussion, threw a glass at Jackie, who didn’t even flinch as it zinged past her head. (Also, she served on the board of the American Board of Homeotherapeutics as well as being the Dean of the National Center for Homeopathy’s Summer Instructional Program.)

Richard Moskowitz, at the AIH Sesquicentennial in 1994, described Jackie as our resident wild woman in introducing her presentation on the ecology of medicine. I took this as very descriptive of her uniqueness, strong presence, intense practicality and far ranging creative thinking.

Jackie had a great love for nature and all living things, and loved socializing, entertaining and being entertained by friends.

We and the world of health care will miss her.

Nick Nossaman, MD, DHt