THOMAS PEARSON WRIGHT
Tom was born on December 28, 1944, in Vancouver, to Arthur & Jenny
Wright – he was the youngest of five children.
His life began and progressed as most children’s do – learning, living,
and finding your place among 4 siblings. As we all know, that can
sometimes be a challenge. When Tom was young, particularly his sisters
doted him on. For instance, when his brother Joe broke his nose and
was rushed off to the doctor, his sister Ande for an ice- cream treat
took out Tom because he had to stay home. I have no doubt that Tom did
not object to their thinking, and, ice-cream remained his favorite
treat, always.
All that aside, Tom and his brother Joe were always great friends.
They were both quite smart and were always thinking of ways to improve
their lives – especially the fun part of their lives. One of the
things they did was to devise their own version of “chicken” - let me
assure you that this game was as intelligent as any other game of
chicken.
The idea was that either Tom or Joe would climb a tree as high as they
could (this was when Vancouver still had trees), and then the other one
would chop the tree down. If you jumped out of the tree before it hit
the ground, you were “chicken”.
You will learn, as we proceed, that this very unique thought process
carried on through Tom’s life.
Tom always loved an adventure, so in October 1962, at the age of 17, he
joined the Royal Canadian Navy. His term of service was only three
years, but it became a very important part of his life. He learned a
strong sense of duty, commitment and loyalty. He also learned
something else very important. What may appear to be the easy road is
not necessarily so.
He chose to be a cook when he joined the navy – he thought it would be
easy. It wasn’t long before he realized that when the seas are too
rough for anybody to be up on deck, the cooks still have to cook. It
didn’t matter what was happening, the cooks still had to cook. He
discovered that cooking wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be and he
never again, throughout the rest of his life, ever took what appeared
to be the easy road.
He also had a secondary job in the navy, as a gunner, at which he
excelled. Quite a combination, a cook and a gunner.
About 2 months before he was discharged from the navy, he met and fell
in love with Laurina and, after a brief courtship; they married on
April 23, 1966.
It was then, that Laurina discovered Tom’s love of camping. Now, Tom
really believed in roughing it. He wanted to camp like the pioneers,
so, no cooking utensils were allowed. Off they went, with a borrowed
leaky pup tent, which Tom pitched on an active ant hill beside a stream
out in the wild somewhere. No campground for him.
The first night, Tom was up all night stomping on ants so they wouldn’t
get into the tent, and keeping the fire going to scare off bears. In
the morning, he decided that it might be a good idea to move the tent.
He then set it up on a nice bed of clay. The reasoning was that it
would be softer to sleep on. Now, that might have been a good idea if
it hadn’t started to rain. Before long, the tent, Tom and Laurina all
slid into a big mud hole, at which time, Laurina informed Tom that she
had had enough fun and was going home to a hot bath.
On November 6, 1969, Tom and Laurina’s only child, Thomas Craig Wright
was born. Tom was ecstatic. Even though he had just started a new job
and was working long hours to get him established, on Sundays, his only
day off, he encouraged Laurina to sleep in and he tended to the new
addition to the family. Every Sunday, Tom and Craig would venture out
to see what the world had to offer them. Sometimes, it was just a
drive, but more often it was something a little more exciting.
When Craig was a month old, Tom took Craig sledding down hills strapped
to a makeshift sled, much to Laurina’s dismay, when she found out.
When Craig and his cousin Rob, joined the boy scouts, at age 5, Tom and
Bob (Rob’s dad) became leaders. They had many camp-outs and events
over the years and had a lot of fun. Some events were more memorable
than others.
When Tom was acting as a Cub Scout leader, he thought it would be a
good idea to sneak into the bush to give the kids a bit of a scare
after the campfire stories. As the stories were winding down and 30 –
8 year old boys were shivering wide-eyed in the dark, Tom stole away
into the night. He climbed a tree, much as he did when playing chicken
with his brother, to have a good vantage point to see the outcome of
his tactics. The scouts all got up from their places around the
campfire and started their march back to the building. Tom got ready,
crouched on the branch to get into position, and the branch broke. Tom
lost his footing and tumbled out of the tree onto a log. The group of
cub scouts came around a bend in the trail to see one of their
responsible adult leaders, lying on his back, moaning in pain, on top
of a log.
Another time they took the boys camping
fine, until they woke in the morning to
floating on the lake. He had forgotten
But, Tom, always an optimist, said that
that caught their breakfast.
to Pitt Lake. Everything was
find all their supplies
that Pitt Lake is a tidal lake.
his group was the only group
There are many stories about Tom’s impetuous nature that we will
remember for years to come.
Those of you who know Tom well, will know that he had the tendency to
be, on occasion, a little accident prone. Tom was always getting
himself into situations where there were opportunities for injury.
As Tom got older his self-injuries became less frequent. In an effort
to make up for this, the injuries became more painful, and much more
creative.
On one occasion, Tom was working on one of the cars in the driveway at
their home. The cars were parked end to end and Tom was working
between them. Well, somehow, the car in the rear rolled down a slight
incline and Tom found himself pinned by the legs between the two cars.
Now, being a reasonable man, he didn’t want to call out for help
because the neighbours might hear him and he didn’t want to have to
explain how he got into this predicament, so he started throwing tools
at the garage door to get Laurina’s attention, so she would come out
and deal with the aggressive vehicle.
Now anyone can run over himself or herself with a car. Few people
have, but it really isn’t that exotic an injury. I mean in this part
of the world, most people have cars. Not everyone has a …jet ski. Tom
went for an afternoon at Cultus Lake with brother-in-law Gerry, and son
Craig, to rent jet skis and enjoy them. They all boarded their
respective vehicles, and tore off into the distance. Now, it is
interesting how people’s personalities make themselves evident in their
motor-vehicle behavior. Gerry went off alone, and tried some sharp low
speed turns that would suck the back end of the Jet Ski into the water.
He would whack open the throttle and pop out of the water landing
safely amid much chuckling. Safe and precise.
Craig would rocket off into the distance as fast as he could, take long
looping turns into the water, falling off frequently, but without
injury. Speed and luck.
Tom took a different approach, capsizing the Jet Ski immediately; he
remained on the jet ski while attempting to right it kayak-style, while
the impellor burbled quietly away…out of the water. In fact, Craig saw
a capsized vehicle from a distance, and thinking it was a boat, went
over to investigate. He jumped off his jet ski when he realized it was
his dad, and pulled him from his upside-down perch and brought him
above water. Tenacious to a fault.
Tom’s most spectacular injuries came not from water, nor four wheels,
but from two. His motorcycle adventures are epic in nature, beginning
back in the mid 80’s. Tom wanted a motorcycle, so he bought a small
Honda with a big piece of plastic on the front. Having never ridden a
motorcycle though, he lent it to his brother-in-law Gerry for storage
and to visit. Tom would come by and take his bike for a walk. He felt
it would be safer to get a feel for the bike by walking it, never
sitting on it, never with the motor running, through Gerry’s cul-desac. You could often see Tom, in a full face helmet - safety first walking beside his motorcycle for endless silent tours of Marian and
Gerry’s neighbourhood. Then the day came that Tom felt he had enough
of a feel for the motorcycle to walk beside it with the motor running.
Now, this wouldn’t have been a problem, and frankly, represents the
next logical step in the progression of the reluctant motorcyclist if
it were not for one thing. He put the bike in gear. Had he walked
beside the motorcycle in neutral, no problem. It is a little more
difficult to negotiate all the nuances of the motorcycles clutch from
beside the bike, on an incline, sideways. It wasn’t too long until Tom
started to feed the throttle - a little too much throttle, breaking the
rear wheel’s traction, and dumping the motorcycle on top of him in the
middle of the cul-de-sac, with it still running. He was rescued by
Marian and Laurina, who came out and turned off the motorcycle, helped
Tom out from underneath it, and into the house.
Once his ego healed a bit, he ventured back outside to upright his
motorcycle and walks it into Gerry’s garage…without sitting on it, and
without the motor running. He kept the helmet on for this, and to this
day, the neighbours in the cul-de-sac are convinced it was Gerry under
that bike, not Tom. Tom never could recall who it was under that
motorcycle while in public.
After a while, Tom got a new motorcycle. He quickly learned from his
previous experience, and got a job at a hospital, which was a plus for
his motorcycling exploits. On one of his first rides on this bike, he
walked it to the hospital’s parking lot, sat on it, and turned the
motor over. The bike came to life immediately. Tom eased the bike
into gear. He popped the clutch and the bike shot out from underneath
him, bashing his leg and knocking him to the ground. The bike motored
along smoothly without him for 75 feet before falling on its side,
burbling evenly and quietly. Lying in the middle of the parking lot,
he tried to get to his knees, but felt too much pain. Again, his pride
getting the better of him, he decided it was best not to draw attention
to his current situation by yelling for help. The nurses reported
seeing Tom rolling through the hospital parking lot on the way to his
motorcycle and turning it off. The nurses had a gurney waiting.
Tom’s accident-prone nature did not only claim him as a victim. When
Craig was in grade 1 at the tender age of 6, he asked to take tae kwon
do lessons. It seems Chuck Norris was quite popular at this point in
the 70’s. Tom was very supportive of this activity and dutifully took
his 6-year-old son to class every Saturday. Did I mention his son was
6 years old? Tom found the things his son was learning to be very
interesting and decided to take lessons with him. Tom thought it would
be fun to have a new skill and tae kwon do would be a good source of
exercise and a good opportunity for he and his son to do something
together. His 6-year-old son! One day, when Craig’s two front teeth
were a little loose, Tom took his son to class earlier than normal.
While they waited for their class to begin, Tom thought it would be a
good idea to practice sparring with his son. His 6-year-old son!
Craig stepped in with a scissor block at the same time Tom stepped in
with a lunge punch. The result? A lot of crying, a lot of blood, and
Craig was two teeth lighter. They must’ve spent 20 minutes looking for
the teeth, though they could only find one. The tooth fairy took that
into account later that evening, and gave Craig fair market value for
two teeth.
Tom took a lot of ribbing about his numerous accidents. He always
talked about them with a smile on his face and never shied away from
these activities, as they represented the adventure he was always
looking for in his life.
Now, most of you know that Tom did a fair amount of volunteer work.
One of the things he did was volunteering with the provincial emergency
preparedness program in Lytton. This involved search and rescue as
well as working with ambulance crews. He found this very rewarding and
had many stories to tell about his involvement. He also commented many
times on how much he was learning.
Some of his learning came in very handy on a motorcycle trip that he,
Craig and Gerry took to the east coast. Now, we were all used to Tom
getting injured, but this time it was Gerry who had a fall and broke
his collarbone. All three of them were on their motorcycles and still
had some distance to drive to get back to the truck to transport the
bikes. So, Tom was able to call on his rescue training and with the
help of some duct tape, he and Craig put Gerry back together enough to
enable him to get to the truck. I’m not sure that duct tape is a
staple in most ambulances, but it did the trick.
In 2001, Tom and Laurina decided to go on an extended vacation. They
spent several months traveling through the United States and had many
adventures, including flash floods in Arizona, rain, rain and more rain
in California, a hurricane in Galveston and a blizzard at the Grand
Canyon. They returned home for a month or so and then headed off to
Ottawa for Canada Day – where, believe it or not, the fireworks display
was cancelled for the first time since they began – due to high winds.
Well, not to give in, Tom’s adventurous spirit took them off to visit
the Atlantic Provinces. They visited Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince
Edward Island, Newfoundland and then Nova Scotia. Now, Tom had done
some of his navy basic training in Nova Scotia and had always wanted to
return. So, they stayed for three years.
Tom began working in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia for a health care
facility that worked with mentally and physically handicapped adults.
It turned out to be a great joy in his life. He came to understand and
love the residents of the facility. Tom and Laurina frequently would
take them out for drives, or invite them for Sunday tea or a barbecue.
On returning to BC, Tom began working for the Canadian Mental Health
Association in Delta, on a part-time basis. This allowed him to be
involved with the work he loved and also allowed him enough time to
begin his own business – Minuteman Press – a print shop here in
Langley.
A business of his own had been a lifelong dream and he was so excited
about going to New York for training and planning the grand opening for
this new venture. Unfortunately, Tom became ill when the business was
barely 6 months old.
Tom enjoyed physical activity and the outdoors. He enjoyed hikes and
camping or just enjoying beautiful scenery. He was also incredibly
determined and tough. He could go on hikes and carry a load that would
bring other people to their knees.
Tom had a lust for life. Everything he did, he did full tilt. Whether
it was road trips, volunteering, renovating the house or working at his
job, he put everything into it.
With his unique thinking, he introduced Craig to a new sport, which
combined snowmobiling and kayaking. You tie the kayak to the
snowmobile with a long rope, put your son in the kayak and then set off
across a frozen lake as fast as you can. And, no complaints when this
exciting new sport defeated the drive train of the snowmobile - just a
part of living life to the fullest.
Doing anything halfway was not a possibility for Tom. He was always
anxious to get things done so he could get on to the next thing. I
wonder what his next thing will be.
Words on Thomas Wright
My name is Mike Storey. A year ago May, Thom Wright joined my Rotary
club in Delta, the Rotary Club of Ladner. In the short space of less
than a year, I began to get to know Thomas Wright. Thom was a warmhearted man who would go out of his way to help. Thom truly exemplified
Rotary and the Rotary motto, Service Above Self. Thom wanted to make
this world a better place and he did.
Thom made an indelible impression on our club. Thom did a tremendous
job while he was with our club. He was instrumental with our Rotary
Calendar project, which is funding the construction of a Family Grieving
Room in the Delta Hospital. The Rotary calendar is also providing
funding for programs at Delta Hospice, Delta Youth Services and one of
Thom’s most cherished organizations, the Delta branch of the Canadian
Mental Health branch. Thom’s involvement with the Delta Chapter of BC
Mental Health has led to one of Delta’s leading Rotarians to take over
the Executive Directorship of that organization.
It was my privilege to be part of Thom’s world, even for only a short
time and I am richer for that privilege. On behalf of the Rotary Club
of Ladner, we will remember Thom as a special person who did make a
difference