Robert Wright, former owner of the Marquette County Tribune in Montello, learned the newspaper business from his grandmother.
Wright was born in New York City and grew up in Chicago suburbs. He spent boyhood summers with his grandmother in Waupun, where she operated a weekly paper. He was inspired to earn a bachelor’s degree from the UW School of Journalism.
He published the Marquette Tribune for 29 years, selling it four years before his death. His columns, “I’d Rather be Wright,” and “Our Four Acres” carried Wright’s characteristic wit. He retired at age 63 and battled cancer for several years from his home on Lake Montello.
Wright was president of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association in 1974, and in 1980 he was honored by UW-Madison with its Distinguished Service Award in journalism.
He died in 1984 at the age of 67.
