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Former Athlete Walter
Wright Dies
.c The Associated
Press
AP-NY-03-07-02
1443EST
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Walter C. Wright, a retired educator and Negro leagues baseball player and historian, is dead at age 89. Wright, who died Monday at Tulane
Medical Center, Wright was a pitcher and outfielder for the New Orleans
Athletics, St. Raymond Crescent Stars and Black Pelicans during the 1930s.
In 1957, he organized the Old
Timers Baseball Club, which had 150 baseball players from the former Negro
leagues. He was elected to the New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame in 1982.
Born in Natchez, Miss., Wright
was a 1934 graduate of Xavier. He earned a master's degree from Duquesne
in 1961 and did postgraduate work at the Texas, Wayne State and Nicholls
State.
He began work in the New Orleans
public schools in 1949. During the summers of his teaching years, Wright
was beach manager for Lincoln Beach on Lake Pontchartrain.
In 1966, Wright was appointed
supervisor of the adult basic education program and was later appointed
director of continuing education for the New Orleans public school system.
He received Louisiana's
Outstanding Administrator Award in Adult Education for 1973-74. He was
listed in ``Who's Who in Education.''
At 65, he retired from New
Orleans public schools and became business and community development
director for Liberty Bank and Trust Co. He retired from that position at
80.
Survivors include two sons, Wayne
E. and Eric A. Wright; a daughter, Genelle W. Gibson; four grandchildren;
and a great-grandchild.
A Mass will be said Saturday at
St. Leo the Great Catholic Church, followed by burial in Mount Olivet
Cemetery. |