Bob Wilson’s High School Graduation Photo- 3 Tales, 1 Photo

I’m proud to say that Chapel Perilous: The Life & Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson contains the earliest known photos of Robert Anton Wilson! In my research, I was able to find a photo of Bob from 1962, taken in Yellow Springs, OH — the image of Bob from that is what became the cover of the book! I was also able to contact Brooklyn Technical High School, where Bob spent his formative intellectual years, and a generous worker there provided me a copy of Bob’s graduation card as well as a yearbook photo from his senior year! This was such a find. Also, from those photo’s I was unable to pinpoint exactly where Wilson lived in Brooklyn as a teenager!!!

There are a number of things that I love about Wilson’s high school photo. First, he looks so different, with a head full of blonde hair, than his later photos where his hair line is in serious recession. This young Bob in the photo exudes a quiet confidence, despite the fact that he graduated Brooklyn Tech with a 71 Average for his GPA. I like to think, that somewhere deep inside, RAW knew that he was destined to be a mind-blowing writer.

I went down many different research roads as I wrote my book, and quite a number were never used in the book. The following is one such example. For, upon studying the names and faces of two other classmates of Wilson’s in that 1950 Brooklyn Tech yearbook, I looked into the lives of Carl H.J. Winfield and Walter Yetnikoff. Those familiar with the history of the music industry may recognize the last fella’s name, because Walter Yetnikoff.

One night, while looking at the pictures of these three young men, I marveled at the different paths that we all travel in this life. For instance, Carl Hamilton Winfield was born in 1931 in Brooklyn, the son of two immigrant parents from the Caribbean. To this day, New York City has the third largest Caribbean population in America! After Brookyln Tech, Carl went on to receive his bachelors and master's of science degrees in Chemical Engineering. Then he was recruited into the Korean War. Afterwards, he began his professional career working for various picture companies, spending most of that time working for Polaroid. Carl remained married for 60 years and had a few children. When he died in 2019, he was remembered fondly by family and friends as a good, solid man.

Bob’s other classmate, Walter Yetnikoff travelled another life path. Walter, like Bob and Carl, was born in Brooklyn and his brilliant mind opened many doors for him during his life. Walter was born in 1933 and graduated Brooklyn Technical early. After high school, he went on to Brooklyn College then Columbia Law School. He did a brief stint in the military, afterwards beginning his career as a lawyer. In one case, the firm he worked for represented William Paley, or Bill, the American businessman who turned CBS from a small radio station to a major media power. Not long after, Clive Davis brought Walter into CBS to work as a staff attorney. Walter climbed the ladder of success quickly and by the early 1970s became the president of CBS Records International. In 1975, he was promoted to the CEO of CBS and remained in that job for the next 15 years. Walter “wrote” his memoir and published it in the early 2000s. He died in August of 2021.

(Unfortunately, I found zero information about the fourth fella in the yearbook page, James Xenakis.)

To learn more about Robert Anton Wilson’s time at Brooklyn Tech, and why his yearbook photo list “E” as his middle initial and not “A,” then read Chapel Perilous: The Life & Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson