Problem Solver

FROM where he sits (in a wheel chair), Alva S. Wilson, Dartmouth alumnus and vice-president of Atlanta's progressive Auto-Soler Company, sees it as a little tiresome the way many business men complain about difficulties of getting materials and workers.

"If they'd stop butting their heads on stone walls and get down to solving problems for themselves, they'd do better," observed Auto-Soler's production chief.

As one who solves his own problems, Wilson has earned the right to speak. Stricken with polio after his junior year at Dartmouth, he left college in 1934. He later spent eight years at Georgia's Warm Springs Foundation, and in 1934 was made head of the Foundation's accounting department.

He continued in that capacity until 1936. Through a mutual friend, he joined forces with William H. Wilkerson, founder and president of The Auto-Soler Company. Wilkerson needed someone at the then infant plant while he went on the road to sell his invention. That invention has been revolutionary in the shoe industry, a machine that makes its own nails and drives them. It is the only machine of the sort in the world.

Vice-President Wilson describes his job as "supervision over the amount of goods we produce, national and overseas shipment, number of workers required and the hours they work, getting better tools and machinery to do the job better, and personnel work." In the latter capacity Wilson helps individuals iron out problems concerning their jobs and their personal affairs as well.

He doesn't do much "sitting" as such. Much of his time is spent in the factory. It is all built on one level and Wilson wheels himself anywhere he wants to go. He is able to do some walking, but doesn't attempt it at the plant; the wheel chair gets him more places quicker.

The transplanted Bostonian has had considerable to do with this Southern company's success. When asked, he explains his accomplishment by saying that he started when Auto-Soler was new and learned as much as he could. The company is now nationally recognized as one of the most progressive in the country, and markets its machines internationally.

"We learned a lot on procedure from our war work," Wilson stated. "Army and Navy specifications were so exact that we learned many new ways to do things, and now turn out products superior to those we made before the war."

He has made Atlanta his home. "After I had polio," he said, "I didn't relish the idea of stiff New England winters. I liked Georgia, and decided to stay here."

In 1935 he married the former Miss Maude C. Hudson, of Greenville, South Carolina, and they have two childrenArthur, six, and Alva Jr., three. He is a member of the Dartmouth Club of Georgia (its secretary in 1938-39), the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and is Vice-Chairman of the Georgia Chapter of the American Society for Metals.

ALVA S. WILSON '25, who fought courageously against infantile paralysis, is now vice president of the Auto-Soler Co. in Atlanta