After High School, he went to the Moody Bible Institute, where he studied from 1913 to 1914. There he became familiar with Torrey, Sunday, Ironside, Trotter, Gipsy Smith and others. His father was Trustee of the Moody Bible Institute from 1907 to 1950. From 1914 to 1917, Wilbur studied at Wooster College, where he received his BA. His received his Doctor of Divinity from Dallas Theological Seminary (which was then called the Evangelical Theological College) in 1932. At the end of his first year at Wooster College, he married Mary Irene Ostrowsky, a student at the Moody Bible Institute.