A Time of Transition

Abstract

This is a great occasion; I feel quite unworthy to do justice to this commemoration of a great man and a revolutionary event and to become one of the illustrious band who have so graced this occasion in the past. For the more one reads about the Wrights' achievements, the more one is impressed by them as men of stature—of great character, determination and intellectual strength with a most endearing modesty. They had too, such a sense of fun and there is a golden thread of family affection running all through the record. They were men of vocation just as their father, Bishop Milton Wright, and there is no doubt of the influence of the family ties on what they did. One senses how much home meant to them and how much they all turned to Katharine, the womanly stabilising element. A comment of Wilbur's in one of his letters to George Spratt commenting on a technical argument they had been having, is very revealing. "It is a characteristic of all our family to be able to see the weak points of anything", a vivid hint of most lively family discussions, and of course, this most rare combination of brothers must have been a fundamental element in all their work.