Four Generations Passionate About Teaching

The education system has changed in the last century, from the one-room classroom and the way that students arrive to schools.

With a larger population of students and accommodations in transportation, the practices of consolidations and voucher programs are not uncommon. Students can have an opportunity to get a glance of what the one-room schoolhouse looked like, by visiting the Plunk School at the Heritage Homestead on Franklin Street in Doniphan.

There is one special memory that every student will recall: who was their first teacher. Teachers are the first influencer outside of the family that contributes to forming the foundation of ideas and thoughts of young minds’ plan to change the world.

Through the changes in education, there is a Ripley County family that has left a legacy of educators that has spanned four generations and over a century of years total. In the course of many years school districts have been redistricted, though there might be something special to be said about good strong beginnings in education (family roots).

The family roots of the Wright family’s first generation in education began in 1924, when Vincent Wright (1915-1975) began his early education in the Tucker community. Not uncommon in the 1920s and even 30s students would become boarders. To attend high school in Alton, Mr. Wright had to board with a family who lived there, due to transportation difficulties (true dedication to education). In time with redistricting, history did repeat itself.

The first generation of teaching began with Vincent Wright when he stepped into his role in 1938, in a rural school in the tucker community (where is son would also later begin his teaching career in the very same school).

Vincent later taught and then became elementary principal at the Doniphan Elementary School until his death in 1975. Mr. Wright was known to be a “headhunter” for educators before the term was commonly used.

Mr. Wright not only pursued to influence more individuals into the education system, he also financed the education of the second-generation education in teaching.

The second generation of teaching for the Wright family was with Vincent’s son Bert Wright who began teaching in 1955. He taught until retirement in 1993, a year longer than his father, of 38 years. Bert taught all subjects and grades in rural schools for several years before teaching math and coaching at DMS, then finished his career as principal at Doniphan Elementary School (DES) from 1976 until 1993.

Bert’s wife Reva (Kate) also had 20 years of education from 1971 until her retirement in 1991. Reva’s teaching experience was primarily in first and second grades at Pine, Ripley R-IV Lone Star and Doniphan R-1.

Both Bert and Reva passed away in October.

The Wrights left such an impression for education and a love for teaching that influenced both their children, Gary and Jacquelyn (Jackie), despite Jackie’s earlier years of proclaiming, “I will not teach school. I will be different.”

Gary spent 29 years at DMS teaching math and coaching basketball. Terri Wright, Gary’s wife, began teaching at Doniphan R-1, in 1983, taught pre-K and was a reading specialist in the Doniphan R-I district until her retirement in 2018. Jackie began teaching in 1984 at Gatewood R-III and eventually moved to the Doniphan school district where she taught kindergarten until her retirement in 2016.

However, she continued to teach as an adjunct instructor for Three Rivers College in the education department until 2021.

In the fall of 1987, just a few years after the third generation begin teaching, the Wrights were featured in School & Community magazine, a publication of the Missouri State Teachers Association.

At that time Reva said she believed teaching “would live on in the Wright family” and she was correct.

The fourth generation of educators include grandchildren and spouses, many who have received educational awards and recognitions that include Ripley County Teacher of the year and a Scholastic National Teacher Advisor title. This generation has also expanded into the Naylor R-II school district and to the Doniphan High School (DHS).

The Wright legacy continues, adding to it the family names of Thornton and Johnson.

Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” The Wright family has just done just that through the century, with adding and scattering their love of education throughout the County of Ripley.