Wilbur Wright

Wilbur Wright was born in Detroit into a “Great Migration” family of five children during the depths of the Great Depression. He found his desire to travel the world early while chairing a United Nations Day Forum at Highland Park Junior College in Detroit, Michigan. After the Forum, Wright met the speaker, Marie Cole Berger, from the U.S. delegation to the U.N. General Assembly. Because of his expressed interest in foreign policy, Ms. Berger suggested a career in foreign affairs, and encouraged him to consider graduate study at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C. Wright fought tenaciously to build a foreign affairs career, despite professional and societal restrictions. Exploring opportunities in foreign business after graduation from the University of Michigan in 1955, he was rejected by 25 major American international corporations, and eventually decided to go into military service. When he returned, he received his first overseas government posting. In a remarkable career, he initiated Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat’s first trip to the United States and Sadat’s meeting with President Lyndon Johnson. In Rome, he worked on the visits of President Richard Nixon and later First Lady Pat Nixon. While serving as the Labor Attaché in The Hague, a chance encounter with Henry Ford II in Denver enabled him to resolve a strike at the Amsterdam Ford factory.