Memorial is set for Theodore C. Wright

A memorial service is planned for Saturday, April 6, for Theodore Craig Wright, 85, a longtime teacher and coach at Chestnut Hill Academy, who died Saturday, Dec. 8, at Wesley Enhanced Living at Stapeley in Philadelphia. He had a disabling stroke in 2001.

Mr. Wright spent 26 years at Chestnut Hill, serving as French teacher, foreign language department chair, director of college counseling, and football, varsity baseball, squash, and basketball coach.

"He was also their first full-time college counselor, and thus played an integral role in many CHA students' school experience," said his son, Chris.

Mr. Wright received the Landreth and the Athletic Director's Awards and a trustee fellowship, was inducted into the school's athletic hall of fame, and was named an honorary alumnus.

In 1983, he switched careers and worked for Lincoln Investment Planning in Jenkintown as a certified financial planner. His clients were mostly teachers and staff from schools in the Philadelphia area. The firm recognized his productivity by giving him numerous President's Club awards and naming him to its hall of fame.

Mr. Wright retired in 2001 after the stroke.

Born in Trenton, Mr. Wright graduated from George School in 1945, earned a bachelor's degree in French from Haverford College in 1949, and earned a master's degree in French from Yale University in 1956.

He served from 1951 to 1953 in the Army in Germany, where he coordinated military and civilian educational programs.

At various times, he taught French and coached football and baseball at George School, St. George's School in Rhode Island, and the Peddie School in New Jersey.

Mr. Wright's passions were family, friends, a menagerie of pets, nature, sports, chess, wordplay, and all things French.

He was an avid reader of English and French prose and poetry, and loved music. For many years, Mr. Wright was active on stage at the Stagecrafters and Playcrafters community theaters, and performed in faculty shows at Chestnut Hill Academy.

He loved restoring "the Wright Place," a summer residence for 130 years in Island Heights, N.J. During the winter, the family lived in Chestnut Hill.

He kept in contact with former classmates, students, colleagues, and fellow Stapeley residents as he moved from assisted living to the skilled nursing unit at Stapeley.

Surviving, in addition to his son, are daughters Suzanne, Elizabeth Craig, and Stephanie Denson; two grandchildren; a brother; his former wife, Nancy Wright; and his companion of many years, Judith Brndjar.

The memorial service will be at 2 p.m. April 6 at Haverford Friends Meeting, 855 Buck Lane. Interment is private.

Donations may be sent to the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, 8480 Hagys Mill Rd., Philadelphia 19128.