1925 Biography - George W. Wright

George W. Wright, M. D. In the eight years since he graduated from medical college, Doctor Wright has risen to a place of genuine distinction as a surgeon. It is in that branch of his profession that all his practice is centered and a number of facts attest his splendid qualifications and leadership.

Doctor Wright, who attained the rank of major in the World war, is a resident of Monroe, and was born in that city January 16, 1892. His higher education was acquired in Tulane University, where he graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1914 and as a Doctor of Medicine in 1916. During 1916-17 he served as a fellow in the Mayo Foundation. His parents, James B. and Sammy (Roscoe) Wright, were natives of Massachusetts and Virginia, respectively.

Doctor Wright in July, 1917, entered the army service in the medical Officer's Training School at Camp Greenleaf, Georgia, and was transferred to Camp Jackson, South Carolina. Early in 1918 he went overseas with the Fourteenth Evacuation Hospital Unit. This was a mobile unit and with it Doctor Wright served in two of the most important campaigns of the American Expeditionary Forces: the St. Mihiel and Argonne Forest Offensives. Following the armistice came a stay of six months with the Army of Occupation at Coblenz, where he was on duty as consulting surgeon. He rose from the rank of lieutenant to major in the Army Medical Corps. Major Wright received his honorable discharge in June, 1919, but still holds the rank of major in the Medical Officers Reserve Corps and also has an active commission with the rank of major in the Medical Detachment of the One Hundred and ifty-sixth (Louisiana) infantry.

Major Wright is one of the youngest surgeons to achieve the honor of Fellow Of the American College of Surgeons. He practices exclusively in surgery and is chief surgeon of the St. Francis Sanitarium at Monroe. He belongs to the different medical societies including the American Medical Association, and is a member of the American Legion and the Society of Foreign Wars. He is also a Mason, a member of the Lions Club, the Lotus Club, the Monroe Country Club, and the college fraternities, Delta Kappa Epsilon, and Alpha Kappa Kappa, the latter being a medical fraternity.

September 22, 1919, Doctor Wright married Miss Ileen Haynes, a daughter of William R. and Martha (Shrewsbery) Haynes, of Tennessee, and they have one child, George William Wright, Jr.

Note: The sketch is accompanied by an autographed portrait of the subject.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, pages 191-192.