Wright, Right Rev. Thomas Henry
Class of 1922Rev. Wright was class president of New Hanover High School’s first graduating class in 1922.
Wright graduated in 1926 from the University of South Sewanee, Tenn. After working for Standard Oil in Wilmington for a year, he entered the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, where he became student body president.
In 1929 he was ordained at St. James Church then went on to serve a network of small Episcopal parishes in Whiteville, Lumberton, Maxton, Laurinburg and Red Springs. He became the Episcopal chaplain at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1932 he was Episcopal representative at Lexington, Va., also serving as chaplain at the Virginia Military Institute. He also served as secretary for college work for the Episcopal Church’s National Conference.
He married Hannah Knowlton in 1943. From 1941 to 1943 he was dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, where he presided at the wedding of Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s brother. From 1943-45 he was rector of St. Mark’s Church in San Antonio, TX at a time when that parish had more than 10,000 members. Later he was consecrated at St. James Church he was working to heal race relations during his tenure and for increasing the church’s emphasis on missions and social concerns.
Wright was the national Episcopal Church’s chairman of overseas work. He visited leper colonies in Okinawa and confirmed 125 worshipers at an open-air-ceremony in Liberia.
He served as Episcopal Visitor to the U.S. Army and Air Force, making him the ecclesiastical superior to Episcopal chaplains in those services. As part of his duties, he toured military bases in South Vietnam with Gen. William Westmoreland and was at the general’s headquarters when a bombing killed 13 people. He later served as cochairman of the Inter-Anglican Mutual Responsibility Communion. After his retirement, Wright, who was noted for his wit, remained much in demand as a speaker. He died on April 26, 1997.