KSU RECOGNIZES KEN WRIGHT'S SON, STEVE WRIGHT, FOR JOURNALISM & DISABILITIES WORK

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.