More than 1,000 members of the University community gathered in the Duke Chapel Monday morning to celebrate the life of Jo Rae Wright, former dean of the Graduate School.
Wright, who died in January after a long battle against breast cancer, was honored through remarks and anecdotes presented by eight of her colleagues, friends and family. President Richard Brodhead delivered the opening and closing statements. The service was very upbeat and focused on Wright’s positive personality, said David Bell, interim dean of the Graduate School who served as associate dean under Wright.
“[The service] remembered the really good things about her, which were her great sense of humor, bright smile and just fundamental intelligence and good administrative sense,” Bell said.
The service included several anecdotes that reflected Wright’s humorous personality, said Scott Gibson, executive vice dean for administration at the Duke University School of Medicine. Gibson spoke at the ceremony and said he made sure to incorporate humor into his remarks.
“I made a joke that [Wright]... would get joy out of the fact that I was nervous addressing all these people,” Gibson said. “That’s just the way she was. She would absolutely insist on humor being the focal point of the ceremony on her behalf.”
Wright, who died at age 56, arrived at Duke as an associate professor in 1993 and became dean of the Graduate School in 2006. In addition to the extensive research she conducted in the field of cell biology, for which she was awarded the American Physiological Society’s Walter B. Cannon Award for lifetime achievement, Wright was also the first Ph.D. to become president of the American Thoracic Society. Even after stepping down as dean in October due to her deteriorating health, she remained a professor and researcher at Duke. Beyond her many accomplishments, Wright was known for her reliability as a colleague, mentor and friend.
In addition to spoken tribute, the ceremony included photos and music, which reflected the positive impact Wright had on those around her.
“The pictures all showed a big smile because that’s the way everyone remembered her—as a person with a glowing smile who was basically a very happy person... and a person who added so much to everybody’s life,” Provost Peter Lange said.
Gibson said there were pictures of Wright’s dog, Horton, which he said was “the world’s ugliest dog.” Nonetheless, Wright developed an attachment to Horton.
Sally Kornbluth, vice dean for research at the School of Medicine and a longtime colleague of Wright’s, performed a song from the Broadway musical “Wicked” called “For Good,” which conveys the lasting influence a person can have on others. Kornbluth said she had thought of the song during the last month of Wright’s life. When Kornbluth mentioned her musical selection without naming the song to Wright’s good friend, Patsy Saylor, Kornbluth noted that Saylor had the same piece in mind. Saylor is married to Dan Kiehart, professor of biology and chair of the biology department.
“I just thought it was too big a coincidence to ignore,” Kornbluth said.
At the service, Gibson also noted that a cafe in the new School of Medicine Learning Center is going to be dedicated to Wright, and will be named the Jo Rae Cafe. When thinking about how he would want students to remember the woman after whom the cafe was named, Gibson said he hoped students would think of the humility, humor and persistence that marked all of Wright’s accomplishments.
“She had this personality that was so disarming and nonpretentious that people always wanted to work with her,” Gibson said. “Through all that she went through, she just kept this crazy sense of humor.”
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