ObituaryEugene "Gene" Patrick Wright
Submitted on Wednesday, May 5, 2021
Eugene “Gene” Patrick Wright (’60, ’61 M.A.), 85, Professor Emeritus of English, died
April 30 in Frisco. He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. As a student,
he was a member of Phi Beta Delta and Phi Kappa Phi. He earned his doctorate in English
Renaissance literature from the University of Texas and taught at Lamar University
and UT before working at North Texas from 1966 to 2006. He was appointed the first
faculty ombudsman in 2005, received the Mortar Board Senior Honor society’s “Top Prof”
award and served as commencement speaker at two graduation ceremonies. He published
scholarly books on Joanna Southcott, Thomas Deloney and William Shakespeare, as well
as a series of Jerry Valdez novels, including Run, Run As Fast As You Can; Nobody
Knows His Name; The Painful Warrior; The Accidental Warrior; Patriots and Statesmen; and
Pirates, Preachers and Poteen Makers.