Paul Edwin Wilson was born near Quenemo, Osage County, Kansas in 1913. He graduated from the University of Kansas and Washburn University Law School and served in the U.S. Army during World War II.

Having been admitted to the Kansas Bar in 1940, he served as Osage County attorney in the late 1940s and was then appointed Assistant Attorney General of Kansas in 1951. It was in this latter capacity that he represented the state during the Brown v. Board of Education landmark case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court finally ruled that public education could no longer be segregated between white and African American children. In 1957, Wilson was appointed as a faculty member in the University of Kansas School of Law.

Wilson was also involved in the Legal Services for Prisoners project, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the University of Kansas' Law School and Washburn University. This project gave graduate students the opportunity to work with prisoners and help them with problems. Wilson was also on the Kansas Judicial Council and was involved with revising the Kansas criminal code.

Paul E. Wilson married Harriet Stephens in 1941, with whom he had 4 children. Wilson died April 22, 2001 in Lawrence, KS.