In Memory Of
Dr. ("Ted") T. Wright
1925
2019
Dr. ("Ted") T. Wright
December 17, 1925 — May 1, 2019
Dr. George ("Ted") T. Wright, 93, resident of Treyton Oak Towers of Louisville, KY, passed away from pneumonia on Wednesday, May 1st, 2019, at Jewish Hospital surrounded by family.
He was born on December 17, 1925, in Staten Island, New York, to George T. Wright, Sr. and Tekla Alida Ingeborg Anderson Wright. Ted, as he was usually known, attended public elementary schools and then Curtis High School, where he graduated as valedictorian in 1941. He then attended Columbia College until he was drafted into the U.S. Army in March, 1944, and served in the European Theater from January, 1945, to the end of the war in Europe. Discharged from the Army in April, 1946, he finished his B. A. degree that year, continued in the English graduate program there during 1946-47, and the following year attended the University of Geneva in Switzerland, studying French there and traveling widely around the Continent. In 1948 he returned to Columbia for another year of study, but left the University in 1948, working for the next four years at various jobs in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco. In 1953, he returned to graduate study in English and American literature, but at the University of California at Berkeley, where he took his PhD. D. in 1957. He had married Jessie (Jerry) Honeywell in 1955.
Subsequently, he taught English and American literature at New Mexico Highlands University (Summer, 1957), the University of Kentucky (1957-60), San Francisco State College (1960-61), the University of Tennessee (1961-68, with two years out for a Fulbright teaching appointment at the Université de Geneve in 1964-66), and at the University of Minnesota (1968-1993, with a year off for another Fulbright appointment at Aristotelian University in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1977-78). He retired in 1993 as Regents Professor of English, and he and his wife moved to Tucson, Arizona. Jerry died in 2006.
His chief interest as a scholar was in poetry, especially in style and form, and most of his published writing bore on these subjects, at first in modernist poets like Eliot, Yeats, Pound, and Auden, but he eventually traveled back to Shakespeare's plays and poems, publishing a book on Shakespeare's metrical art and a widely read essay on Shakespeare's use of the figure of speech, hendiadys, especially in Hamlet and other major plays. He also published many poems of his own and a volume of poems (Aimless Life, 1999), in addition to many essays and two collections of them.
After spending a long time in Tucson, Arizona upon retirement Ted moved to Louisville, KY and Treyton Oak Towers where he was an active member of the community and an avid chess and bridge player.
He was predeceased by his wife, Jerry Honeywell Wright, parents, George Thaddeus Wright Sr. and Tekla Anderson Wright; his brother, Lawrence Wright; and his sister-in-law, Joyce Wright, and sister Norma (Wright) Weaver and brother-in-law Robert Weaver.
He is survived by his nephew Raymond L. Weaver and nieces Pamela Rehman and Colleen Long, from Hale, MI, and Sharon Wright of Vero Beach FL. A celebration of his life will be held at Treyton Oak Towers at a date to be announced later.
To leave a special message for the family, please "Share Memories" portion below.
He was born on December 17, 1925, in Staten Island, New York, to George T. Wright, Sr. and Tekla Alida Ingeborg Anderson Wright. Ted, as he was usually known, attended public elementary schools and then Curtis High School, where he graduated as valedictorian in 1941. He then attended Columbia College until he was drafted into the U.S. Army in March, 1944, and served in the European Theater from January, 1945, to the end of the war in Europe. Discharged from the Army in April, 1946, he finished his B. A. degree that year, continued in the English graduate program there during 1946-47, and the following year attended the University of Geneva in Switzerland, studying French there and traveling widely around the Continent. In 1948 he returned to Columbia for another year of study, but left the University in 1948, working for the next four years at various jobs in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco. In 1953, he returned to graduate study in English and American literature, but at the University of California at Berkeley, where he took his PhD. D. in 1957. He had married Jessie (Jerry) Honeywell in 1955.
Subsequently, he taught English and American literature at New Mexico Highlands University (Summer, 1957), the University of Kentucky (1957-60), San Francisco State College (1960-61), the University of Tennessee (1961-68, with two years out for a Fulbright teaching appointment at the Université de Geneve in 1964-66), and at the University of Minnesota (1968-1993, with a year off for another Fulbright appointment at Aristotelian University in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1977-78). He retired in 1993 as Regents Professor of English, and he and his wife moved to Tucson, Arizona. Jerry died in 2006.
His chief interest as a scholar was in poetry, especially in style and form, and most of his published writing bore on these subjects, at first in modernist poets like Eliot, Yeats, Pound, and Auden, but he eventually traveled back to Shakespeare's plays and poems, publishing a book on Shakespeare's metrical art and a widely read essay on Shakespeare's use of the figure of speech, hendiadys, especially in Hamlet and other major plays. He also published many poems of his own and a volume of poems (Aimless Life, 1999), in addition to many essays and two collections of them.
After spending a long time in Tucson, Arizona upon retirement Ted moved to Louisville, KY and Treyton Oak Towers where he was an active member of the community and an avid chess and bridge player.
He was predeceased by his wife, Jerry Honeywell Wright, parents, George Thaddeus Wright Sr. and Tekla Anderson Wright; his brother, Lawrence Wright; and his sister-in-law, Joyce Wright, and sister Norma (Wright) Weaver and brother-in-law Robert Weaver.
He is survived by his nephew Raymond L. Weaver and nieces Pamela Rehman and Colleen Long, from Hale, MI, and Sharon Wright of Vero Beach FL. A celebration of his life will be held at Treyton Oak Towers at a date to be announced later.
To leave a special message for the family, please "Share Memories" portion below.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Dr. ("Ted") T. Wright, please visit our flower store.
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