John McCaffery Wright ’53

John Wright, who with his family (his father was John P. Wright '28) spanned five generations of community service to Keene, N.H., died there Nov. 15, 1998, after a long illness.

When he finished St. Paul's, John, like many who had been confined at boarding schools, found the independence at Princeton invigorating. He joined Colonial Club, and Sandy Lambert recalls the happy times the two shared. He majored in economics and was active in the Student Christian Assn. Following graduation he was an officer in the Army for two years and spent the next 40 with family-owned J.A. Wright & Co., manufacturers of metal polishers, which was established in Keene in 1873 and from which John retired as CEO in 1995. He headed the local historical society, hospital, and library boards, was chairman of the city's main bank, and was president of the Rotary Club. His daughter Sarah Stanley said her father's last public appearance was in September at his firm's 125th anniversary observance. Heartfelt sympathy to Patricia, John's wife of 45 years; Sarah; another daughter, Susan M.; sons John B. and Joshua P.; brother Thomas P.; and sister Mary P. The class was represented at John's funeral by Hal Pilskaln and his three-year campus roommate Charlie Rooney, who put it well when he said that John was "a true Christian and a true New Englander."

The Class of 1953