Purd B. Wright III |
| Posted 2019-01-31 by Pat R |
| Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri) Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Purd B. Wright III, 88, died November 22, 2018, in Kansas City, Missouri. Purd was born March 17, 1930 in Kansas City, Missouri, the son of Purd B. Wright, Jr. and Aline Isabelle Smith Wright. A perfect Irish Catholic birth date was wasted on an Anglo Saxon Protestant who would have been quite content to arrive a day sooner or later. Needless to say, he was promptly nicknamed Pat to avoid the inevitable confusion inherent in being "the third". He attended Border Star School and Prairie School and then moved to Westchester County, New York. After attending a somewhat mediocre junior high school in Bronxville, New York, his parents sent him to Kent School, an all boys boarding school in Kent, Connecticut. At Kent Purd earned his Varsity letter K in football and crew, and in 1948, rowed in the Henley Royal Regatta at Henley-on-Thames, England. Upon graduating cum laude in 1948 he matriculated at Princeton University and experienced an initially uninspiring academic career there until leaving for the military in early 1951. Because of the Korean "conflict", which turned out to be a grim war of three years duration, he enlisted in the Regular Air Force on January 8, 1951. After only a month at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas his connection with the Korean War ended when he was assigned to the Strategic Air Command Survival School at Camp (now Fort) Carson, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was trained as a combat intelligence instructor and served in the Survival School for twenty months in Colorado and at Stead Air Force Base, Reno, Nevada. He was next assigned to Smoky Hill Air Force Base, Salina, Kansas where he served in the Intelligence Section of the 310th Bombardment Wing (B47s). Six months later he was ordered to the 5th Air Division, French Morocco, and sailed from New York to Casablanca on the USNS Geiger. Incredibly (because he was by then a Staff Sergeant), the taxpayers also sent to Casablanca his 1952 Studebaker Champion four door sedan. His first duty was in a Target Intelligence Center at Sidi Slimane Air Force Base, a forward launching pad for B47 bombers targeted at the Soviet Union. He then served at the Headquarters of the 5th Air Division in Rabat, the capitol of French Morocco. A thirty-day leave at the end of 1953 allowed him and the Studebaker to meet his folks at Orly Field in Paris and with them tour part of Western Europe and Morocco. The next year he returned to the Zone of the Interior and was Honorably Discharged at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey on August 5, 1954. He returned to Princeton University and graduated with Honors in History in 1956, a living example of what military service will do for one's academic incentive. Purd was employed as a traveling salesman and sales manager for forty-one years with International Paper Company, FMC Corporation, and GardenWay Inc. Purd was a Life Member of the Colonial Club, Princeton, New Jersey and the American Legion, Post #153, Olathe, Kansas. He joined the Mercury Club of Kansas City in 1965. He was a member of the Civil War Round Table of Kansas City and the Sons of the Revolution, Missouri Society. His Revolutionary War ancestor was Corporal Samuel Brooking, Virginia Third Light Dragoons. Purd began his association with horses when he joined the Saddle and Sirloin Club of Kansas City in 1966. A dedicated trial rider, he held a forty year pin from the Saddle & Sirloin Club Men's Fall Trail Ride and a twenty-five year pin from the Desert Caballeros Ride in Wickenburg, Arizona. He was first married to Olive Boyd Beaham. He is survived by his wife, Margaret Ann Conklin (Peggy) Wright, his son Allen Purd Wright and wife Stacy, his daughters Jennifer Helen Wright Berrigan and husband Mike and Abigale Susan Darch (Abbe) Ehlers and husband Tom and seven grandchildren, Maggie Berrigan, Patrick Berrigan, Jared Wright, Trevor Wright, Kate Berrigan, Owen Wright, and Eric Wright. A memorial service will be announced soon: no flowers, no church or preacher. Contributions to the USO, address: United Service Organization (USO), P.O. Box 966860, Washington, D.C. 20077-7677. |
Note: These obituaries are transcribed as published and are submitted by volunteers who have no connection to the families. They do not write the obituaries and have no further information other than what is posted within the obituaries. We do not do personal research. For this you would have to find a volunteer who does this or hire a professional researcher.
Questions About This Project?