Dr. William Wesley Wilkerson, Jr. was a Nashville physician and founder of the Bill Wilkerson Hearing and Speech Center that was named in memory of his son, W.W. Wilkerson, III who was killed in action during World War II. Dr. Wilkerson was born in Nashville November 11, 1897. He received his M.D. from Vanderbilt University in 1920 and interned at Long Island City Hospital. In 1921 he was a resident physician at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. Upon completion of his residency in 1924, he returned to Nashville to practice medicine as an ear, nose and throat specialist. Beginning in the 1940s he led the effort to establish a hearing and speech center that would serve children of the region with hearing loss by focusing on early intensive intervention where a child could come to learn to speak and communicate in order to have a much better educational and employment opportunities. Through the joint effort and support of both private and governmental agencies, the center became a reality in 1949 when Dr. Wilkerson organized a board of directors and chartered the Tennessee Hearing and Speech Foundation that was later renamed by the board to honor his son. He died in Nashville March 14, 1961.