Jeff Wilson, a teacher of future collision technicians, has died in the recent flooding in Texas. His wife Amber Wilson and son Shiloh Wilson are among the missing, according to the school district where Wilson worked.
Wilson’s death was reported by local media in Houston and the surrounding Hill Country, where flash flooding in Central Texas began over the July 4 weekend. Maps and national media said “several months’ worth of rain” fell in just a few hours, raising water levels along the Guadalupe River by 22 feet. More than 100 deaths had been counted by the morning of July 8, reports said.
Wilson taught auto body skills for 30 years at two high schools in the Humble Independent School District, local reports said.
HISD Chief Communications Officer Jamie Mount wrote via email that Wilson had created Kingwood Park High School’s auto body program, when the school opened in 2007, and led its career and technical education (CTE) department.
Wilson’s brother-in-law, John Dustin Ledford, posted on social media that Wilson had died, which Mount confirmed. She emailed on July 8, “Amber and Shiloh are still missing.”
Update: Later July 8, Ledford posted on social media that Amber had also been found deceased. As of July 10, Shiloh is still missing.
The district posted its report over the weekend on social media; Kingwood Park’s student newspaper, KP Times, wrote of a prayer vigil held for the community July 6, including remembering Wilson and his work.
Area Owners on Wilson: Passionate ‘Scrapper’ for Excellence
“Jeff was a scrapper; he wouldn’t settle for mediocrity,” said Daniel Sullivan, owner of Sullivan’s Truck, Auto & Collision Repair in Kingwood, since opening it in 1985. “Stayed in it until his task was accomplished.” The prayer vigil drew between 1,000 and 1,500 people to Kingwood’s town center, Sullivan said.
“This is so difficult for everyone,” Sullivan said. “I’ve known Jeff for at least 30 years … to hear this news, is just unbelievable.”
He said his shop has seen a half-dozen of Wilson’s students as interns at his 30,000 square feet, with local indie Kenneth’s Car Care and car dealers aboard too. “And the big box guys,” locally meaning Crash Champions and Joe Hudson's.
Sullivan said Wilson worked with both ASE and I-CAR, “so when students came out of the program, they had one or both [certifications], which made the students huge assets to local employers.”
Wilson was known for rallying the local collision repair industry — collision centers, vendors, trade groups — to the cause of students in training. Talking to paint reps, for instance, “to make sure kids [in the program] had what shops were spraying, the best things they needed to be prepared to come into the field,” Sullivan said.
Adan Ibarra has worked with Wilson on I-CAR efforts; he echoed the excellence encomium. Ibarra chairs the Houston-Galveston committee for the group from Leading Edge Collision in Houston. He ran the shop for nine years and bought the 18,000-square-foot operation in 2020.
“He’s just a great guy, a great person, and really passionate about what he did,” Ibarra said of Wilson. “Always found ways to advocate for his school [including] with CREF or CIC.”
Ibarra mentioned Wilson’s efforts, after a hurricane, for instance, and echoed Sullivan citing vendor relationships: pushing for the gifts of paint and tools, stretching dollars, identifying and fulfilling “what schools really need, helping us” to develop useful donations.
“The program he built at Kingwood is an example of what a program should be,” Ibarra said. “His shop at the school was a beautiful facility, and he taught his students how to take care of it.”
Industry Remembers, Family Never Forgets
An I-CAR spokesperson’s email noted Wilson’s volunteer committee efforts. Such alliances raise funds locally for schools and students, among other activities.
“Jeff’s unwavering belief in our industry and his love for the work we do were evident in every interaction,” said Terry Ticel, I-CAR associate vice president for collision repair, on volunteer engagement, in the email.
John Melendez, owner of JDM Collision in Chicago, emailed a testimony, also deploying passionate praise: “He believed deeply in mentoring young talent and took every opportunity to share his knowledge, time, and heart to guide the next generation,” which for he and Amber included their son Shiloh.
Jeff Wilson "photobombing" at an I-CAR event. Image provided by Adan Ibarra.
Shiloh was a 2024 champion youth rodeo rider, Ibarra said, and the family was RV camping in Kerrville for an event, a social media post by Ledford said. The next day, Ledford said Shiloh’s rodeo gear had been found, but that neither he nor his mother had yet been located.
On the afternoon of July 8, Ledford said on social media the gear has been sent to the Wyoming custom saddle maker who “made Shiloh’s custom saddle, and has [offered] to restore it and his gear for us.”
Ledford’s updates on Facebook have combined received more than 4,000 shares or comments.
Leading Edge Collision sponsored Shiloh in his bronc riding: “Man, that kid is about the toughest 12-year-old you’ll know,” Ibarra said.
He recounted how at one event during Shiloh’s championship run last year, Jeff told Ibarra that Shiloh had been riding and at some point the horse stepped on his head, “popped his helmet off, cut him behind the ear and gave him a concussion. The next week, Shiloh was mad because he couldn’t play baseball” — following doctor’s orders.
Ibarra said Shiloh “drew that same bronc for the finals, and — Jeff’s telling me this — and Shiloh came up to him and told him the news.” The boy and his dad discussed it. Shiloh got back on the bronc and won the finals.
“Jeff was raising that boy to be a true cowboy and a strong kid — and so respectful,” Ibarra said. “When he came to the shop everything was ‘yes, sir’ and ‘no, sir.’ Jeff and Amber were really raising that boy right.”
“They were always together, a great family,” Sullivan recalled. “When they were out at the rodeo — he was beaming with pride, dressed to the nines. They loved what they did and everybody loved them back.”
Like Father, Like Son, Like Friends, Like Forever
Ibarra called Wilson his best friend and shouted-out his cowpoke status, too. “As a cowboy, as a father, as a husband, and as someone in the industry, someone we — we really need more like him,” he said. “If you knew Jeff, you knew family was everything. He made it clear through his actions.”
You can hear Ibarra audibly choke up, as Sullivan did when he spoke, as even the emails seemed to sound. And with that emotion most people connected the points of Wilson’s life — school, shops, family — to a wider idea of what life could be like, and not just in collision repair.
Cole Strandberg met Wilson twice at I-CAR events, and Wilson was a guest on one episode of Autobody News’ The Collision Vision podcast, which Strandberg hosts. Strandberg said Wilson’s Way “was apparent and contagious. He’ll be truly missed across the industry and beyond.”
Melendez wrote of Wilson’s “commitment, kindness, and quiet leadership [in the] lives he touched.”
Ibarra added, “What you see is what you got. He’d tell you how it was — he’ll tell you honestly what he thinks and what he feels … and that’s something we kinda miss these days.”
Ticel wrote of Wilson’s inspiration of others “through his dedication, heart, and larger-than-life personality.”
Sullivan: “He was a pioneer, as far as I’m concerned. Shined like a beacon. … Everybody looked up to him.”
Not just an instructor, “he was a mentor. His kids loved him,” Sullivan said. “He fought for the very best for them, and I guaran-damn-tee you he went down fighting to the end.”
Photo gallery images provided by the Humble Independent School District and Adan Ibarra:
Paul Hughes