This afternoon's e-mail brought the following sad news from Mary McNamara, VP of Union Theological Seminary in New York.Win Wright and I were doctoral students together in the Harvard NELC program in the late 1980s. We hadn't been in touch for many years and I didn't know she was ill. I remember well her self-effacing humor and her quiet determination to finish what she started.
Edwina Wright was a versatile Semitist who earned her doctorate at Harvard under the supervision of John Huehnergard. For many years she served as assistant professor of Bible and then as director of language instruction at Union.
Win was a brilliant pedagogue who inspired love and devotion in her students, and also an empathetic and compassionate colleague. She had resigned her Union appointment last summer partially for reasons of health, but her sudden death was completely unexpected. While she was a gifted scholar and a marvelous teacher, she also was painfully modest about her own abilities and achievements, reticent about publishing and uninterested in self-promotion. I will miss her.
The Union Theological Seminar website has the following notice about her:
EDWINA M. WRIGHTUPDATE: Again from the Agade list - John Huehnergard writes:
Director of Language Studies and Adjunct Professor of Biblical Languages
Professor Edwina Wright, received the B.A. from Douglass College, Rutgers University (1967), the M.A. from Eastern Baptist Seminary (1969), the M.Div. from McCormick Theological Seminary (1985), and the Ph.D. from Harvard University (1996). She joined the Faculty of Union Seminary in 1998 as an Assistant Professor of Old Testament and last year, began her new position as Director of Language Studies and Adjunct Professor of Biblical Languages. Her primary responsibilities in this position include the teaching of introductory courses in Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Greek and an intermediate level reading course in Biblical Hebrew.
In addition to her regular academic teaching, Professor Wright periodically directs individualized courses in Biblical Aramaic and Ethiopic. She also administers the Hebrew diagnostic examination for Old Testament doctoral students and works with the Biblical Field in providing linguistic support for students taking the Biblical exegesis practicum. As Director of Language Studies, she assists Dean Hayes and Registrar Edie Hunter in planning for the Summer Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Greek courses. This past year, she worked with representatives of the Union Latino community and the Academic Office in the development of Union's first course to be taught in Spanish. The class, Spanish for Ministry, is a one-credit course being taught during the spring 2007 semester, which focuses on the development of conversational skills and the discussion of articles that highlight ministry within the Latino context.
Prof. Wright's participation in the Union community has included: serving on Auburn's Kneeland Award Committee; support of the Black Women's Caucus and of Fierce, the caucus of gay and lesbian students of color; support of the Poverty Initiative primarily through invitations to Willie Baptist, scholar-in-residence, to speak to Biblical Greek students regarding Jesus' response to the poor; attendance at the Students of Color Retreats; and occasional participation in student-sponsored dramatic events.
Prof. Wright's primary research interests include Semitic Philology and Historical Linguistics, particularly regarding the Afro-Asiatic language family. Her teaching has also included courses dealing with the prophetic literature of the Hebrew Bible.
Edwina (Wyn) Wright, Director of Language Studies and Adjunct Professor of Biblical Languages, Union Theological SeminaryUPDATE (30 December): More here.
Wyn Wright, who died yesterday, was the first person to complete a Ph.D. with me. She was brilliant, perhaps the best language learner I have ever met; she could get the grammar down so quickly it was scary. And she always wanted to move on to another language; I first studied Amharic, Tigrinya, and Mehri because Wyn wanted to learn them, and so we worked on them together (with her usually several chapters ahead). She was a wonderful teacher, who will be greatly missed by many former students at Union and at Harvard. She had a beautiful voice, and would occasionally sing in subway stations. And she was one of the warmest, kindest, wisest people I have ever known.
After deciding to leave Union last year, for health reasons, Wyn had moved in with her mother Mary. Mrs. Wright told a friend that she and Wyn had had a perfect time together until Wyn became very ill a short time ago.
There will be a memorial service scheduled sometime after the holidays. If you wish to reach the family, Mrs. Wright's address is:
Mary Wright
2 Bowers Road
Mendham, NJ 07945
