The Wright Stuff

By Ann Bierbower

Putting the shoe on the other foot, walking in someone else’s shoes, all terms for seeing something from another perspective, trying on another’s point of view, all for some reason revolving around a person’s feet. Well if the shoe fits wear it and Merlin Wright has tried on many and seems comfortable no matter what pair he has on, even when the interviewer became the interviewee.

His room at the Carriage Place Apartments in Wayne is spotless. The walls are covered in large outdoor paintings and the shelves display model airplanes.

While some people have a difficult time establishing one career, Wright is able to look back on three, all of which were able to overlap each other.

Born in his parent’s farm house between Bartlet and McPaul, Iowa on January 20, 1929 he recently celebrated his 82 birthday and still pursues his work. He has written a weekly column for The Wakefield Republican entitled “Late Night Thoughts” for nearly a year.

“I tell people I was born the year of the depression and I’ve been depressed ever since,” he said laughing heartily before adding, “That’s not true, I’ve had a great life.”

His life and works have taken him many places, but whether it’s from within a church, behind law enforcement or up in the sky, Wright has always wanted to help people and felt strong callings to all of his professions.

His first career started when a plane landed in the pasture close to his house when he was very young. That was it, Wright was hooked. “I thought the guy inside must be God. I couldn’t believe he could just land and take off like that,” said Wright. He began to pursue piloting when he was around 16- years-old and went from private to commercial to aerobatics.

He chose a snap roll as his favorite trick but also loved the “hammerhead” – a trick in which the plane is momentarily completely still in the air. “Weightlessness is quite pleasant,” said Wright calmly of the trick that would send many into a screaming fit. “I can see why the astronauts do it.”

Piloting was both a hobby and a money maker but Wright had other ideas for his profession. He wanted to serve the church.

When his parents’ farm was flooded the family moved to Hamburg, Iowa where he graduated from high school. He then continued his education at Nebraska Christian College in Norfolk where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Theology. He then pursued his education even further at Butler College in Indianapolis, Ind.

This led to a full time minister position. He spent over 15 years at the Wakefield Christian Church before he started to feel a younger married man could better fill his role. “It seemed the ministry was going that way. I thought maybe it was because he could relate more to the people,” said Wright.

These thoughts were in his mind when his next career found its way to him. But rather than a plane in a pasture it came from a friend who owned a newspaper.

A fellow pilot who also happened to own multiple newspapers, among them the Wayne Herald, offered him a job as Assistant Editor and Wright eagerly accepted.

He had written all his life and even been published in college but this was his first actual writing job. He was officially an editor but did a bit of everything including photography and feature writing.

He loved it although he remembers the tough schedule and doing all his work on a typewriter. “I was on the road everyday,” said Wright. “When I first started we took pictures for the state patrol so I would get calls at 2 or 3 in the morning.” 

Now his writing and printing process is much different. He has four computers in his room. One of which is a wide flat screen that notifies him each time he receives a new message and his stories can be sent at the click of a button.

During much of his four years at the Wayne Herald, the paper was printed twice a week and the writers typed their stories then hung them on a line for a woman who transcribed the stories onto a piece of tape with holes in it. The tape was fed into a large machine that could understand these holes and print the paper.

His writing actually brought him to his next career as a probation officer. He interviewed a deputy and he had mentioned they were hiring. His interest was instantly perked. He decided to pursue it and not long after resigned from the Wayne Herald and found himself in law enforcement while still being able to write.

His main and favorite responsibility was performing an intense one-on-one interview with convicted criminals known as the pre-sentence investigation.

“I had to really dig, go through their lives with them,” said Wright. He then had to prepare a write-up about the person which would be used in their sentencing and sometimes to help determine probation opportunities.

“I never worked a normal 9-5,” said Wright. This job too required odd hours and a lot of dedication but that is one of the reasons he loved it. He retired in 1991 after working for the state as a probation officer for 21 years.

Even three careers were not enough. Wright made wedding videos on the side and even managed the roller skating rink in Wakefield for a while. “I could roller skate all day,” said Wright.

Among all of this, writing was a constant, woven seamlessly throughout his life no matter what career he was technically in or other things demanded his time. “I’ve always enjoyed working with words,” he said. From multiple magazines such as the “Christian Standard” and newspapers, Wright has written a weekly column for the better part of three decades. “It’s just fun. Ideas just pop in my head,” he said.

Wright has been fighting cancer for over a decade but it hasn’t slowed him down much. He now uses a wheel chair because of the weakness in his legs but gets around just fine. At the time of interview he had been chemo-free for two weeks when his usual regimen included a chemotherapy pill each day. He continues to look forward to all those different shoes to try on and paths to walk. “I still don’t know what I’m going to be when I grow up,” he said laughing.

He now lives just down the hall from his mother Pearl Wright who just celebrated her 105th birthday. While many grown children see their parents maybe three times a year, he visits his mother three times a day and they enjoy the time they are able to spend together.

“I’ve had a good life, a rich life, an enjoyable life,” said Merlin Wright.