Nationally recognized educator and civil rights activist Irene Leota Moore Wright passed away on January 10 at age 91. The mother-in-law of KAI Founder Michael Kennedy Sr. and grandmother of KAI CEO Michael Kennedy Jr., she was named to the first White House Panel on Mental Retardation by President John F. Kennedy in 1961.
Wright held faculty positions at Atlanta University, Clark College, Spelman College, Harris Teachers College, Tuskegee Institute, Albany State College and Saint Louis University and was published in the areas of speech and hearing problems, teacher programs, the trainable child and deaf education.
She served as vice president of the Albany Civil Rights Movement and was the dean of Students at Albany State College but resigned in protest when she learned that students had been expelled for demonstrating against racial violence and discrimination.
She went on to establish seven schools for those with intellectual disabilities in the South; developed programs for children of parents with drug addictions; served on federal review committees, including the National Center for Law and the Handicapped at Notre Dame University and the Missouri Children’s Trust Fund; and worked as a consultant to the Commissioner of Education in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.
While serving on the White House panel, she met the president’s sister Eunice Shriver and together they shaped programs that countered violence and discrimination against those who had intellectual disabilities or faced racial injustices.
She continued to work when her husband Thomas V. Wright Sr. was transferred to Okinawa as an officer in the U.S. Air Force. Wherever the military took them, she found a way to address the needs of others. The School of Hope, which she founded and directed, taught children with special needs whose families were in the military. Prior to leaving Okinawa, she received the highest award presented to a civilian, the Unsung Heroine Award, for her tireless efforts in getting the school approved and supported by the Department of Defense. The School of Hope has been dedicated to her memory.
She is survived by her “Boo” of 58 years, Thomas V. Wright Sr., and her children: Vicki Hamilton (Harold), Lynn Kennedy (Michael), Traci Wright (Thomas Wright, Jr.), and Marcia Buresch; 10 grandsons: Arthur (Angelica) and Brandon, Michael, Chad, Jon, Sam, Marcus (Sarah), James Trey (Sina), Simeon, and Brett (Betty); and five great-grandchildren: Titus, Bella, Jaz’min, Jaire, and Levi. She also leaves her only living sibling, Jean Collins, and nieces and nephews she adored and all of their children.
She was preceded in death by her beloved son, Thomas Victor Wright Jr.; her sisters, Augusta Mae, Louise Worthington, and Judelle Shaw; and her brother, Julian Moore.
A Celebration of Life Service honoring her is scheduled for January 23 in Atlanta, Georgia.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to either Albany State University in Albany, Georgia or Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.
