Dr. Thomas Wright

THOMAS LUNDY WRIGHT Dr. Thomas Wright died on December 2 in Bethany House after a short illness. A memorial service will be held on Thursday, December 9 at 2 p.m. in the Founders Chapel of the Auburn United Methodist Church with the Rev Nicholas R. Holler as minister. Tom was born in 1925 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. From a very early age he displayed the love of music and ability to play the piano that continued throughout his life. In grade school he developed a passion for movies with their orchestral music. Later he was fascinated by the power of language. He was a veteran of World War II, having served in the Navy on the West Coast. He enjoyed the coastal climate and the scenery, which he never forgot. He explored San Francisco and he read through much of the literary canon, including the complete works of Charles Dickens. Upon his return he studied first at the University of Southern Mississippi and then at Tulane University, where he completed his B.A., his M.A. and a doctorate in medieval literature. As a Fulbright Scholar in England he studied with a noted Arthurian scholar at Manchester University. He served on the faculty of Auburn University from 1960 to 1962 and then at Texas Christian University. In 1965 when the English Department began offering the Ph.D. Tom returned to Auburn where he remained a member of the faculty until his retirement in 1991. In 1972 he married a colleague, Ruth Park Lehmann. In their thirty eight years of marriage they enjoyed European travel, taking in the great cities, the beautiful villages and the spectacular scenery of the countryside; they visited many of the great art museums and they rarely missed a cathedral or an abbey. He was Director of Graduate Studies in the English Department from 1974 to 1981 and a member of the Graduate Council of the university. In 1979 he was named Hargis Professor of English and from 1985 until his retirement he was Co-Editor of Southern Humanities Review. As a supporter of music in the community, he was dedicated to the Auburn Chamber Music Society, serving as a member of its board; shortly before his death, he donated his piano to the Jule Collins Art Museum for its concerts. By all accounts Tom was a memorable teacher of undergraduates, using his wit and imagination to bring unfamiliar literary texts and distant history to life for them. He was chiefly recognized, however, for his work with graduate students who admired his depth of knowledge, his masterful teaching, and his thoughtful, incisive guidance of their research and writing. He served as dissertation director for many doctoral students and as a committee member for many more, applying his high standards with a benign wit and tact that balanced his concern for his students with his commitment to the profession. Over the years many of his former graduate students returned to visit him, speaking warmheartedly of his role in their professional accomplishments. Throughout his life he wrote poetry. He wrote poems to honor Dr. Carl Benson, Dr. Norman Britten, and Dr. Eugene Current-Garcia on their retirements. On his own retirement his colleagues on the ninth floor of Haley Center expressed their regret at the loss of his witty and incisive commentary on the life they shared. His retirement was also keenly felt at the Southern Humanities Review. In the last issue under Tom's editorship, his coeditor Dan Latimer praised "his bracing prose style, the most entertaining we have seen," adding, "We will miss his stabilizing influence, humor, and depth of experience." He was preceded in death by his parents, Roland W. Wright and Velma Avent Wright of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He is survived by his wife, Ruth Lehmann Wright, of Auburn, his sister Kathryn Wright Drake and her husband James R. of Chattanooga, Tennessee, a nephew, Robert R. Drake, also of Chattanooga, a niece, Julia Drake Crone, of Suwanee, Georgia, her husband J. Phillip and two great nieces, Bailey and Rachel, and by his cousins in Hattiesburg and Oxford, Mississippi and elsewhere. In lieu of flowers the family suggests memorials to the Auburn Chamber Music Society at 402 Brookside Drive, Auburn, 36830 or a charity of your choice. Jeffcoat-Trant Funeral Home & Crematory is directing.