CityView Magazine

26 | July/August 2019 continuing his education until a caring high school teacher took him aside to tell him of recruitment at Virginia State University (then Virginia State College) for males entering the teaching field. Do you want to apply, she asked? Oh yes, he replied, I can do that. "at was my homeroom teacher," he said, "And she helped me apply and even loaned me her car when the time came for the entrance exam at Virginia State. I put on my little blue suit, and blue tie and did my best. When I found out I passed I was happy as a lark." His path to becoming a teacher would take a detour, however, as Wright found a passion for the Army during two mandatory years in the Reserve Officer Training Corps program at the university. To finish the four-year program and enter the Army as an officer, Wright was asked if he wished to test to continue. His predictable answer and successful score led to college graduation in 1959 with a Regular Army commission. at was the beginning of a long and distinguished military career which led Wright to travel the world, command troops and posts, serve bravely in Vietnam, and retire at the decorated rank of full colonel. Wright says he did not set out to make the Army a career, but the success he found propelled him to remain in the service and do more. "I am not concerned about the time it takes in a job or task," he explained. "I just want to get the job done right." Wright got his job done so well in the Army that early promotions, advanced degrees, and special appointments became the norm and not the exception in his upwardly mobile path. Along the way, he was told he would make lieutenant colonel one day if he kept up his pace. en he was asked: What did he think of that? I can do that, he said, and he did – in 14 short years. He then proceeded to rise even higher. In 1988, with his military retirement looming, Wright began to think about what he wanted to do next. When a friend recommended that he take a job aptitude test at nearby Campbell University, Wright's test results indicated a natural propensity for counseling. He enrolled in a program at Campbell and finished with a master's degree in the subject before retiring from the military in 1989. With his new degree in hand, Wright received an unsolicited phone call from a principal with Cumberland County Schools. Without even interviewing, Wright was told that if he stayed in Fayetteville and wanted to work, he would have a job. Will you stay in Fayetteville? the principal asked. I can do that, he decided. With his wife, Maxine, and their two daughters all in agreement, the Wright family stayed in Fayetteville and Wright, at last, began the career in education that he had set his sights on 30 years before. During the next 27 years, Wright worked in 12 different schools in the Cumberland Honoring Our Hometown Heroes from the Fayetteville area. 100.1 WFAY and every Andrulonis Media radio station airs the National Anthem at noontime. Every Day. All Gave Some. Some Gave All. WFAYcountry.com

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