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Calvin was born in Boston on 2 Apr 1925, the son and only child of Frank Wright and Ruth Walsh.[1].
Calvin Wright was an ordained minister who served several churches in Massachusetts (Ward Hill, Assonet, and North Falmouth), New Hampshire (Newmarket and Pembroke) and New York (Farmingville). [2]
John Alden, Priscilla Mullins, William Mullins, and Alice (Unknown) Mullins
William Brewster
George Soule
John Alden, Priscilla Mullins, William Mullins, and Alice (Unknown) Mullins
Francis Cooke and his son John Cooke
Thomas Rogers
Richard Warren
1930: 16 Hovey Street, Quincy, Massachusetts.[3]
For the 1940 census showing him with his parents, see the profile of his father, Frank Wright.
His obituary, largely self-written, was published in the Concord, (NH) Monitor on October 19, 2015. [4]
Calvin Thayer Wright (1925 - 2015)
Calvin Thayer Wright died in Pittsfield NH on Oct. 16, 2015. He was born on April 2, 1925, in Boston MA to Frank Huntington and Ruth (Walsh) Wright and spent his earliest years in Quincy, Mass. [5] A few years later, the family his father lost his stock market job in the Great Depression and the family was forced to move in with relatives in Randolph, MA which then became his home town.[6]
His mother was an outdoors person and a great lover of nature. She introduced him to the outdoors and spent many hours with him in Peat Meadow observing and learning about the local bird life as well as operating a feeding station and bird banding operation. The love of birds became a passion that never left him and he was for many years a member of the Brookline Bird Club. Almost any morning in May when he was free he would be found with his binoculars in Mt. Auburn Cemetery or Plum Island, two well known birding hot spots. One of his great regrets was he never let his mother teach him the wildflowers, ferns and mushrooms as well!
During his years at Stetson High School in Randolph he worked on a local farm during haying season operating the horse-drawn tedder and dump-rake. He graduated in 1942 and worked first in a shoe factory and then at the Fore River shipyard as a boilermaker's helper. Soon he was caught up in the second world war and went from building ships to sailing them when he joined the Navy in 1942. He became a quartermaster and was the general quarters helmsman on a LST. LST stood for Landing Ship, Tank but he joked it really stood for Large Slow Target! Calvin saw action in the Mediterranean and was present at Omaha Beach on D-Day. Later, he went to the Pacific and was in the Philippines when the war ended.
Calvin was able to attend college on the GI Bill and then Gordon Divinity School and Harvard Divinity School. He worked for a time at the Boston Gear Works but soon left to begin a student pastorate in Ward Hill MA.
On Dec. 20, 1947, he was married to Betty Lou Heath in the First Baptist Church in Randolph where they first met. [7] The marriage produced six children, one of whom died in infancy.
Calvin took a second student pastorate in Newmarket (NH) Community Church and was ordained there Oct. 22, 1961. He later served churches on Long Island, N.Y., Assonet MA, Pembroke NH and North Falmouth on Cape Cod.
Calvin's interest in nature turned to seashells and he amassed a large collection through personal collecting and trading with other collectors all over the world. He joined the Boston Malacological Club at Harvard and served two terms as president. He later disposed of the collection and turned from collecting the cast off shells to studying living creatures.
In 1991 he joined the UNH Marine Docents and for many years took his slides and live creatures around to schools all over the state.
Another interest he developed in his later years was genealogy and he traced his ancestry back to Charlemagne in 742. He enjoyed sharing his expertise and for two years taught a course in beginning genealogy at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Concord as well as helping many of his friends in their search.
For the last few years, he has been a member of the First Congregational Church of Hopkinton NH, where he served on a number of committees and held several church offices.
He was predeceased by his wife of 54 years, Betty Lou (Heath) Wright, who died in 2000 and a son, Calvin, in 2008.
He is survived by three daughters and one son with whom he was living at the time of his death. He is also survived by three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Visiting hours will be held Wednesday, Oct. 21, from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Waters Funeral Home, 50 S. Main St. Concord.
Funeral services will be held Thursday, Oct. 22, at 1:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 1548 Hopkinton Road in Hopkinton.
Burial with full military honors will be held on Friday at 11:15 a.m. at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, Mass.
Acadian heritage connections: Calvin is 21 degrees from Beyoncé Knowles, 21 degrees from Jean Béliveau, 21 degrees from Madonna Ciccone, 20 degrees from Rhéal Cormier, 19 degrees from Joseph Drouin, 21 degrees from Jack Kerouac, 18 degrees from Anne Murray, 20 degrees from Matt LeBlanc, 19 degrees from Roméo LeBlanc, 20 degrees from Azilda Marchand, 18 degrees from Marie Travers and 21 degrees from Clarence White on our single family tree. Login to see how you relate to 33 million family members.
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Categories: Randolph, Massachusetts | Concord, New Hampshire | Congregational Ministers | United Church of Christ Pastors | Massachusetts National Cemetery, Bourne, Massachusetts