Born Moline, IL, 1931, a child

of the Depression and a

Mississippi River boy from

the Quad Cities of Illinois and

Iowa, Frank Wright was raised

in East Moline, IL, the bluest

of the blue collar towns. 

He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1953 from Augustana College in Rock Island, IL, where he also met his wife, Barbara, an equally-depressed fellow Cubs fan from Chicago.  Thereafter followed one year of post-graduate study in journalism at the University of Minnesota, the only school that would give him any money, a part-time teaching assistantship.

Frank joined the Minneapolis Star and Tribune in 1954 and never left.  He served in various junior reporting and first-line supervisory positions until 1964.  Minnesota political reporter 1964-68.  Covered national politics for ten years as Washington, DC, bureau correspondent 1968-72, bureau chief 1972-74 -- the decade of Watergate, Vietnam, and somebody from Minnesota constantly running for president (Humphrey, McCarthy) or getting ready to (Mondale).  Managing editor of the Tribune 1977-82.  Managing editor for news, merged Star Tribune 1982-84.  Associate editor-foreign correspondent 1984-98, reporting from more than 60 countries.  Retired in 1998.

Overseas reporting assignments included Afghanistan,

Pakistan, Iraq, Israel, Occupied Territories, China,

former Yugoslavia, Russia and much of the rest of the

Soviet Union, Southeast Asia, Western and Eastern

Europe, Central America, Africa and elsewhere.

Recipient of numerous state, national and international

awards for reporting from the Newspaper Guild,

Society for Professional Journalists, Associated Press,

Worth Bingham and Raymond Clapper Memorials and

Overseas Press Club.

Former chair of Star Tribune unit, Twin Cities Newspaper Guild.  Former president, Minnesota Associated Press.  Former Pulitzer Prize juror.  Former member of executive committee, Nobel Peace Prize Forum.  “Faculty” member of Augsburg College of the Third Age.  Minnesota International Center Great Decisions speaker.

Frank and Barbara have five children, nine grandchildren, all above average.