Editor's Note: This is the fourth of a multi-part series profiling essential members of the College community who make Dartmouth operate smoothly every day.
As the 16th President of the College, Dartmouth President James Wright has ultimate responsibility for a multi-million dollar international institution. The first to attend college in his family, Wright's life story is filled with irony. At age 61, Wright recalls a fulfilling past and a career that has no near end in sight.
Wright grew up in the small Mississippi River town of Galena, Ill. The son of a World War II veteran, Wright said the earliest memory of his father was when he was six years old and his father returned from the service. Eleven years later, at age 17, Wright followed in his father's footsteps and joined the Marine Corps with four friends.
"This is what you did. You either got a job -- in the mines or at a local farm or maybe at Kraft Foods and John Deere, which had big plants -- or you joined the service first," Wright said.
Some time during his three years in the Marines, Wright decided he wanted to go to college. After serving, Wright said he worked a number of odd jobs, but unlike many of his friends, who were settling into these jobs for good, Wright was working for a different purpose: to support a college education. Upon his return, he applied and was accepted into the University of Wisconsin.
Wright continued to work in college as a night watchman, bartender, janitor and warehouseman. His most memorable job, however, was working as a powder man at a zinc mine one summer. Making $2.20 an hour, Wright spent his summer splitting dynamite with a knife.
When his father found out he was working in the mines, Wright's father urged him to quit, saying he knew of too many friends who were killed or injured in that line of work. Despite the fact that a fellow miner was killed that summer, he kept the job that paid an above-average wage in spite of its level of risk.
As he engaged in his undergraduate studies, Wright began considering a career as a high school history teacher or an athletic coach. Ultimately, his passion for history steered his future choice of career.
"There are lessons embedded in history, but history lessons are not things that shout out at us. We have to recognize the uniqueness of each situation -- we have to recognize our own capacity to be an actor in this," Wright said. "That we are actors that can influence things on our own has been one lesson from history that has been very important to me."
Upon graduation, Wright put teaching plans were on hold. Wright was awarded a Danforth Fellowship, enabling him to work toward his Ph.D. at the school of his choice with a full scholarship. Wright said he chose the University of Wisconsin at Madison for its prestigious history program.
Near the completion of his Ph.D., a teaching position in the history department at Dartmouth opened. Wright had never set foot in New England, but when he arrived in October of 1968, at the peak of the fall foliage, he fell in love with Hanover and the College, he said.
He was offered a job as an assistant professor of history and began teaching the following summer.
Wright moved up the ranks at Dartmouth. He was promoted with tenure and assumed positions of leadership, first as Dean of Faculty, later as Provost and as Acting President. In 1998, he accepted a call to succeed President James Freedman as the College's 16th President.
"I hadn't quite made up my mind as to what I would do when I grew up until the Board asked me if I would be president of Dartmouth," Wright said.
Looking back on his tenure as president, Wright said he misses teaching most. In his first year as president, Wright continued to teach in the history department but soon gave it up as he was "juggling two things that just don't juggle very well."
Nevertheless, Wright said he still considers himself a teacher and a historian and that he often incorporates a history lesson into his public addresses.
Wright also attempts to stay connected with students, holding weekly luncheons in his office and frequenting College dining halls.
And despite rumors to the contrary, Wright said he and his wife Susan do live in the President's mansion on Webster Avenue. Still, Wright said he finds it more difficult to foster close relationships as president than when he was teaching.
"I come to know the students, but not in the same way you do when you're teaching," Wright said. "That's a very special relationship."
At 61, Wright said he is not yet ready to analyze his life but can offer some reflections.
"I can't sort out what it is in my own life that has brought me to Dartmouth, but I certainly found a resonance here. It's hard to walk around here and think about working in the mines or being in the Marine Corps or being on a farm -- it's a different sort of community and place. But there's a resonance of values here that are important to me," Wright said.
Wright remains conscious of his past despite the stark difference of his experiences in academia. On his desk in Parkhurst Hall sits a piece of Zinc and a powder knife -- reminders of his days working in the mines.
Wright also said he feels a connection with soldiers so many years after his own military service. Having been struck by the number Marines have been killed in Iraq lately, Wright visited injured Marines at Bethesda Naval hospital last month. He talked to the soldiers about his own life, and encouraged them to think about going to school.
Of all the lessons he has learned, Wright said he believes that people's lives should not be planned in advance -- a lifestyle he both models and preaches.
In a generation where there is so much pressure on students to build resumes and check things off of lists, Wright said he urges students to resist these pressures, and suggests instead that they enjoy themselves and explore their passions. By doing so, Wright said, life will take care of itself.
"You take the opportunities when they come along, you follow your best instincts, you try to have a sense of values and integrity, and who knows what twists life is going to take. After all, the Red Sox won the World Series!"
