Kent State has recognized the late former Composing guru Ken Wright’s son, Steve Wright, once
a BJ night sports clerk (1982-87), for covering his coverage of disability stories. He’s a 1987 KSU graduate.
Steve has personal experience about disabilities. His wife, Heidi
Johnston-Wright, a 1982 Kent State grad, was in a wheelchair at Kent’s Prentice
Hall because of rheumatoid arthritis when Steve met and
wooed her. They have been married for almost 40 years.
Steve
began his journalism career with the Columbus Dispatch because his wife was
starting law school at Ohio State. Even his beat was growth, planning and urban
affairs he wandered into travel and lifestyle stories on people with
disabilities, including the landmark passage of the Americans with Disabilities
Act in 1990.
When Steve saw the
handwriting on the wall for print journalism, he picked a warmer landing spot
in Miami as Senior
Urban Policy Advisor to the Miami City Commission chairman.
A
decade later, he shifted gears again, to marketing/business development for a series of
design firms.
At the
age of 50, he created a storytelling firm that advises design clients in South
Florida, including the largest disability non-profit in America with smart
growth/land use for real estate research and communications.
Heidi,
a lifelong public servant who has been an Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator
for 20 years and an architecture lecturer for a decade, and Steve are creating an in-person and online
course on Universal Design for undergraduate and graduate architecture/planning/design
students.
Steve and Heidi co-authored of the Accent Press
book, “Ideas for Easy Traveling: Timely Tips for Those with Limited Mobility.”
61
million Americans – 1 out of every 4 adults! -- has a disability that impacts
major life activities, according to the Center for Disease Control.
Steven
caught the journalism bug from his dad, Ken, while he was a Wadsworth High
student.
Ken
began at the BJ in 1960. By the 1970s Ken and I were huddled in the same room
together just off the Composing room that once housed dozens of linotypes that
pumped out words on “hot type” that printers had to assemble with metal frames
for a page that went to engravers, who made an impression of the page in
reverse so that, when liquid hot metal was poured upon the cardboardish-looking
age, it came out readable side and on a circular roll that was put on the
printing press to turn into the daily newspaper that 5 people in Summit,
Medina, Portage, Stark and Wayne counties found at their doorsteps.
But
massive computer technology came along and Ken and I coordinated its use by
both Composing and the Newsroom, and helped train people through the third
floor of the BJ in the usage and ways to benefit for it.
I trained the first person in the newsroom on
the first terminal in the newsroom as Newsroom Electronic Coordinator with Ken
having the title of New Processes Coordinator.
Linda Williams Torson and I Linda and I both worked with Ken on the
Composing end to smooth the transition for everyone in the building.
Linda, sister of Advertising retiree Mike
Williams who is the source for many of the photos and articles I publish on
this blog, started BJ career wotj the switchboard crowd but was so sharp that
she was transferred to guide everyone at 44 E. Exchange Street into the new
technology world of System 55 as part of the BJ IT team.
Linda spent 42 years at the BJ and Mike retired
in 2022 after 44 years!
As I said when I posted Ken’s obituary tribute
on this blog, “Ken’s level, calm approach helped everyone make the transition.”
Ken
was as mild-mannered as they come, but smart. I’m sure Steve picked up a lot of
that from his dad.
Steve
wrote an article with glowing and deserved praise about his father when Ken
retired in 1988, eight years before I did.
Ken
and I met often at Papa Joe’s in the Merriman Valley at the monthly gathering
of BJ retirees. It was a warm chat every time.
Steve’s
mother and Ken’s wife was June Persons Wright. Ken was the bagboy at a grocery
store that June’s friends told her she should check out. She did. Three days later
Ken called her for a date. They bagged each other.
They
were wed 58 years and in retirement often wintered in Steve’s Florida home.
They have another son, Keith Wright.
Yes, I’ve
been retired 26 years come July and have enjoyed family and travel to 56
countries and 44 states and winters in Florida, Steve’s escape state, for as
long as 4 months a winter.
The
apple didn’t fall far from the tree. And how knows more about disabilities and
how to treat people with them than a journalist who has been married to a woman
who uses a wheelchair for almost 40 years?
I
think the nice-guy Ken that I know, perched in Heaven telling St. Peter how to handle
communication technology, is proud of his son.
Ken
passed away in 2014. My post on this blog described the Wadsworth Wonder as “one of the nicest people in my 26 years at
the BJ.”
BJ Composing retiree
Rita Stapleton, who informed me of Ken’s passing, wrote:
“When I worked with
him in Composing, in the late 60's early 70's, he was a very knowledgeable,
amicable guy and great to work with. Even after he retired he visited and did a
few guided tours.”
Rita nailed it!
Warm
and fond memories of my days and relationship with Ken will last till I die.
Maybe we can resume our chats then with St. Peter as a third person at the
table or couch or whatever people in Heaven sit or float on.
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