Wilson Krahnke

Wilson Krahnke was referred by the DC/MD/VA Chapter and nominated by the Board Development and Nominating Committee after completing his term as a Chapter Trustee.  Mr. Krahnke is a native of the Washington, D.C. area and graduated from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA.  He became a certified public accountant and practiced in that capacity for almost ten years.  He served as the Chief Financial Officer of Hotel Investors, a public real estate investment trust, until its sale in 1987 and then practiced as a real estate and financial consultant.

He retired to become the primary caregiver for his first wife, Betty Ann, who was diagnosed with ALS in 1998.  The invaluable advice and assistance from the DC/MD/VA Chapter of the ALS Association allowed her to be re-elected to a third term as an official of Montgomery County, MD.  She served 19 months of that term until her death in 2002.  As a result, Wilson became committed to the fight to defeat ALS and to help others living with the illness.  Betty Ann’s commitment was the subject for numerous articles in the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun.  Those articles helped raise public awareness of Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Krahnke has served on the Board of the DC/MD/VA Chapter continuously since 2001, six years as Treasurer, four years as Vice President and now as President.  Additionally, he has participated in Advocacy Days on Capitol Hill since 2000 and has volunteered with a patient with ALS.  “I am very proud of the success of the DC/MD/VA Chapter over these last nine years in raising the necessary funds and expanding our services to people with ALS over all of our assigned territory.”  He was elected as a National Trustee in 2008.

In addition to his ALS activities, he has served in many leadership capacities in his church, served as Treasurer and Board member of a start-up Public Charter School in Washington D.C., on the Board of the local Hospice and on the Finance Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and was a Rotarian.

Krahnke is married to Alice Consolvo, has three married daughters, three stepsons and six grandchildren.