My goal in starting the feature was to document the different trails I came across.As such, it has become a running log of sorts and a guide for people wanting to find some great trails.

I hadn’t thought much about the history of these sites. I was more concerned with the trail itself and whether or not it made for a nice cross country run.

Hilary commented on my post about the Clark Wright Conservation Area and wondered who Clark Wright was and what he had accomplished to have a park named after him.

I did a quick Internet search in order to respond to her comment and I couldn’t find any relevant information. In fact, the very first hit on my search was my own blog.

I recently received an email from the personal secretary of J.G. Clark Wright and she filled me in on some of the history and significance of the family. She even asked me to provide this information to you, dear reader.

Hi Chase,

JG Clark went into journalism and marketing.  When he returned to Strathroy, he headed the Marketing/Advertising component of Wright Central. Personally, he was deeply involved in St.Clair Regional Conservation Authority (hence the Memorial Trail) and the Strathroy Library Board.

CWE Bill was the ‘salesman’ of the family. He never completed a University degree, but he was a power-house in Sales and expansion of our market into UK, the Caribbean, Europe. He also held the position of General Manager so that he was ‘hands-on’ with production at the Wright Assemblies’ plant which manufactured shopping cart, store shelving, pharmacy counters, etc which you no doubt saw at Shoppers Drug, CTC, Home Hardware just to mention a few that stick out in my mind.  He was also in charge of plant-safety and worked closely with IAPA and St.John Ambulance, and instituted First Aid classes for all the staff (I was the instructor). He was even awarded an Order of Canada.

Now, we come to the only daughter of the family: Dr. Mary J. Wright.  She specialized in Early Childhood Psychology at UWO and is still involved with the programmes she helped pioneer. She was awarded “Women of Excellence” in 2007. Her acceptance speech was a little abrupt because she was going in for hip-replacement surgery shortly.

As you can imagine, with everyone relatively close and intertwined, I was fielding calls from just about everyone, including the next generation.  With so many men in the mix, it wasn’t workable to announce “Mr.Wright is on the phone for you, Mr. Wright.”  Mr.Bill and Mr.Clark were only divided by a wall, but if a question came up after some dictation, I would simply announce, on my way by, that “Mr.Bill needs to talk to you, Mr.Clark, when you have a minute.”