It is difficult to come up with a fitting tribute for a person as significant in one’s life as Prof. Robert Wright has been in the lives of so many of us who are now Temple Alum. Pooling our thoughts as we look back over the years at Temple, it seems that Dr. Wright shows up in so many of the memories. Whether we were in a seminar translating ancient manuscripts or gathered together preparing for the doctoral exam in Hebrew Bible, he was always there sharing his work and his knowledge, and lacing it all, of course, with a good bit of humor. Yes, the famous Dr. Wright jokes! How would we have gotten through graduate school without them? Sometimes they were seriously bad – but somehow that made them all the funnier. It was the fact that he loved telling them so much! His joke telling even had its own form of ritual – when he began to stir his cocoa, you just knew one was coming. When he got that sheepish grin on his face and drummed his fingers on the table at the same time he was stirring, you could be pretty sure that it would be one you’d already heard – an old standby that he wanted to make sure we’d all remember.

Looking back on those seminars, our memories are full of scholarly learning, sharing and struggling – there was the course where his final exam was to translate a section of the “War Scroll” from the ancient manuscript. We all thought it was over the top -- but we survived. Dr. Wright in his typical good humor had pushed us and placated us all semester with krispy kreme donuts. He even came to know who liked which kind and bought them accordingly. It seems he thought we’d translate better if we were sweetened up first. He was right! There was hard work, there was laughter, there was frustration but there was always celebration as well.

It is difficult to imagine the rooms and halls of Temple’s Religion Department without Dr. Wright. We are grateful for his dedication to his work and to Temple, and for his kind and gentle spirit that fostered so many friendships during those graduate school days. Thank you Dr. Wright! And while you are off traveling in your fancy RV, maybe you could stop in and visit a few of your former students – bring the jokes and the donuts!

Dr. Elizabeth A. Goodine. New Orleans, LA

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