William O. "Doc" Wright and his wife, the former Barbara Stone, joined the U.S. Peace Corps and served a two-year tour in Morocco. Overseas, Wright put to work the skills he honed since 1960 as a veterinarian and since the 1970s as a politician.
Alzheimer's claims W.O. 'Doc' Wright, 76
Wright
William O. 'Doc' Wright
Veterinarian spent 30 years in local politics, 12 as mayor
By Joe Knaapen
News-Chronicle
The Sturgeon Bay mayor who negotiated in 1995 for the state to own a replacement for the Michigan Street Bridge died without seeing the project come to fruition.
William O. "Doc" Wright, 76, died Tuesday at a nursing home in Green Bay, where he was battling Alzheimer's disease.
Wright, who could be as curmudgeonly as he could be charming, served as alderman and mayor, directing the shape of Sturgeon Bay for nearly three decades.
A major coup for Wright came in 1995 when the Wisconsin Department of Transportation decreed the Michigan Street Bridge, completed in 1931, to be functionally obsolete.
At the time, the state wanted the city to take ownership of any replacement bridges, but Wright and then-city engineer John Kolodziej negotiated for the state to build and own a replacement bridge.
Then the floodgates of public opinion opened, and the decision was put on hold while the debate extended to how many lanes the new bridge should contain and at what location it should be built.
"Doc went out of his way to convince the state to own the bridge," said Kolodziej, who is now Door County highway commissioner. With help from the Common Council, Kolodziej said, Wright convinced area legislators to get involved in the bridge settlement.
"Doc was the first major figure to bring the bridge issues to my attention," said State Sen. Alan Lasee, R-Rockland. "We did what we could to make sure the state maintained ownership."
"If Doc Wright had his way, we'd be driving on a new bridge, not arguing about it," said Ken Brey Jr., who served as an alderman during the 1990s. "Doc and I didn't always see eye to eye, but he always put the city first."
Many of the bridge issues remain unresolved, but the DOT has agreed to rehabilitate the Michigan Street Bridge in 2006 and to own and maintain both the old bridge and any new downtown structures built across the bay.
Contrasts - pros and cons, give and take, insults and apologies, tall tales and straight facts, veterinarian and humanitarian, motorcycle rider and convertible driver - were part and parcel of the mix that made Doc Wright a genuine Door County character.
"He was interested in the human condition," said Stephen Johnson, the Sturgeon Bay lawyer who operates a law practice in the Oak Street building that once housed Wright's veterinary office.
"I had a great deal of respect for him," Johnson said, adding that he and his associates got involved in getting Wright re-elected in 1995 after a three-year hiatus from public office. "He did what he thought was right, but only after listening a lot and seeing where everybody else was coming from."
Listening to other opinions, however, did not necessarily mean Wright would change his mind, Johnson conceded.
"Doc and I probably disagreed more than we agreed," said Bob Starr, who was elected mayor after Wright finally stepped down in 1998. "He was strong-minded, and he wasn't afraid to make a decision and then stick with it."
Wright, an Indiana native, moved to Sturgeon Bay in 1960, was elected alderman in 1970-75 and served as mayor from 1980-89 and again from 1995-98. Wright was mayor during the '80s when Sturgeon Bay rose on the economic highs of a boom in shipbuilding and fell with the bust in the industry.
By 1988, employment at city shipyards plummeted from thousands to a few hundred. In the wake of the industrial shakeup, Wright and Gov. Tommy Thompson convened an economic summit at Sturgeon Bay High School to plan the future of the Peninsula. Thompson pledged a partnership with state and helped with legislative initiatives in job creation and transportation.
The partnership of city, county and state with local business led to the creation of the Door County Economic Development Corp., which continues to work bolstering existing businesses, creating new economic opportunities and creating jobs.
"When I think of Doc Wright, the sheer number of years of public service - alderman, mayor - stands out," said William Chaudoir, director of DCEDC since its inception in 1989. "Face it, being mayor is the hardest job in the city."
And regardless of the issues, Wright "ran one heck of a good meeting," Chaudoir said. "He was a parliamentarian and really kept things going."
While not a force behind the waterfront redevelopment, Wright and Edgar Allingham, the city's first administrator, engineered the last move to open up the shorefront where Stone Harbor Resort now stands. To clear the area, Wright negotiated a move that took the Department of Natural Resources building off the East Side lumberyard docks and put the offices in a new building next to the launch basin built at Sawyer Park.
Beyond the details of government, Wright was a "gracious" host to formal visitors to the city and served as "an excellent ambassador for the city," Chaudoir said.
Wright was diplomatic enough to oversee the Sturgeon Bay bicentennial celebration in 1976 and to serve as United Way chairman in 1977.
Wright's humanitarian spirit reached a zenith between his two mayoral careers, when in 1991, he and his wife, the former Barbara Stone, joined the U.S. Peace Corps and served a two-year tour in Morocco. Overseas, Wright put to work the skills he honed since 1960 as a veterinarian and since the 1970s as a politician.
Often, Wright would stop at City Hall dressed in his white veterinary coat while en route to or from a farm call.
"With Doc, you always knew where you stood," Lasee said. "He wasn't shy about telling me when I was wrong. He always tried to do what he could, and once he made up his mind, he didn't vacillate, and I had to respect him for that."
As years passed, Wright got out of office and Lasee stuck with state politics, becoming Senate president. Their paths crossed coincidentally a couple weeks ago.
Lasee was shopping in De Pere and stopped to help an elderly couple get a wheelchair out of their car and help the gentleman into it. It wasn't until they were all exiting the store that the woman went up to Lasee and introduced herself as Mrs. Wright.
The meeting triggered a memory of another public works project in Sturgeon Bay, Lasee said. Back in the 1970s, Third Avenue went through a major reconstruction, and for the grand opening, Wright challenged Lasee to a race on elephants on the new pavement.
"It was like riding the roof of a house in an earthquake," Lasee said. "I remember looking over and Doc's eyes were really big, and I think he beat me."
Whether racing an elephant, riding his Harley across the country or taking on a political opponent, Wright always had both eyes open. And a lot of times, he won.
