IN HER OWN WRIGHT
BECAUSE OF HER PASSION FOR WORKING WITH STUDENTS, SUSAN WRIGHT HAS ESTABLISHED A DISTINCT LEGACY.
Susan Wright’s office contains a montage of her life—and life at Dartmouth: a newspaper announcing “Dartmouth to accept Women,” photographs from her husband’s inauguration, hundreds of pictures of students. Though she says leaving the College is not difficult because this is the right time for Dartmouth, Wright emphasizes that she can’t imagine days without student interaction.
Wright grew up in Montclair, New Jer- sey, and graduated from Vassar in 1969, the year before men were formally admitted. Wright initially taught elementary school in Canada. She moved to Hanover in 1978 and, as the assistant director of career services from 1980 to 1983, coordinated the women-in-business program. After receiving a master’s from Stanford she returned to Dartmouth in 1984 as assistant dean of the College and married James Wright. In addition to holding that assistant dean title for nine years, Wright worked as a class dean and held a variety of coordinator positions in which she advised international and minority students and presidential scholars. From 1998 until last fall Wright held what she calls “a dream job” as director of the Kenneth ’25 and harle Montgomery Endowment, which brings distinguished lecturers to campus.
Although Wright still thinks of herself as Dean Wright, she says her position as Dartmouth’s first lady helped her grow personally and professionally. She desribes the “absolute thrill” of sharing her husband’s excitement at his inauguration.
The Wrights have worked as a team, she says, because their values center on education and Dartmouth. Next year, at their new home in Sunapee, New Hampshire, the Wrights will share even more than values—they’ll use a single desk. This is not to say they don’t operate independently. “I have my own interests, respects and challenges,” Susan says of their professional relationship. “and he has his. We work in parallel, but we each lead our own lives.”
Popular with alumni—as evidenced by her 1992 adoption by the class of 1969—she is renowned among students as a warmly nurturing presence with an uncanny knack for remembering names and personal information. “Do you want me to name the students?” Wright asks. “I can name all kinds of students!”
Wright talks about watching students mature from the first lunch on the President’s house lawn to the day of their commencement. “So much can happen in a life over four years,” she says.
one of Wright’s fondest memories is of a Glee Club Gilbert and Sullivan show in which the students changed the lyrics to be about her. But her greatest pleasure, she says, is “seeing something work out for a student.”
She continues to view the College as a home for students. “There are also open, committed people who want to make the College and the world a better place, who want to be part of this community,” she says. “at Dartmouth these shared values are sustained. Students work together to make a vital and caring community.”
How would she like to be remembered? “That I made a difference for students. I hope that’s it.”
