Nestled into the back corner of Cone Bottoms is a small office, not much bigger than a walk-in closet. Quiet and quaint, a desk and two chairs sit there, filling up the small room. Off that room is the official office of the president; however, that office is almost empty except for a big couch, some chairs and the official desk of the president. Dr. Charles Wright, interim president of Ouachita Baptist University, prefers the smaller room.
But, if you went to visit that room, you may not be able to find him. A much more likely place to find him would be closer to the intramural fields, in the maintenance office.
“Those guys are really important to our community,” Wright said. “Without people like them, Ouachita wouldn’t be nearly the university that it is today.”
Dr. Wright traces much of his roots to a humble beginning in McGehee, Ark., where he grew up. His house, located just one house over from Frank Hickingbotham’s, afforded him a childhood filled with laughter and joy; and of course, football.
“We were best friends. We played football together and he was our center,” Wright said. “He was a year ahead of me, but we got to play together for a couple of years there. He was really good. He and I were running buddies so we spent a lot of time together and went to church together and till this day, we’ve been fast friends.”
From football to choir, Wright found both enjoyable. But, what led Wright to Ouachita for his freshman year in 1955 wasn’t pigskin—it was music, and a few influences of others older than him.
“Of course, he [Hickingbotham] came a year earlier, and I had another influence from a student named Dixon Rile, who was two years ahead of me,” Dr. Wright said. “I had been on campus two or three times for music camps, because we used to have church music camps on campus, so we would come up from McGehee.”
As Wright advanced in his studies and extra-curricular activities, his love for Ouachita grew.
“I got hooked up with teachers— they cared about me and I knew that. I lived in Old North Dorm—it was a rat’s nest but it was big and we loved it. We had a great group of guys and they were very close together. We did everything on campus. It was just where God wanted me.”
Along with living and enjoying campus life, Wright led worship in church on weekends. Though he was active on campus, his weekend business kept him from joining a social club.
“I was approached by the representatives of Beta Beta and Rho Sig and I just told them sorry, but that I didn’t have time. I don’t have anything against social clubs on campus: I really appreciate what every one of them brings to our campus and their contributions to make Ouachita better,” Wright said.
After graduating from Ouachita, Wright taught junior high school and high school for a year while he finished up his master’s. Working only part time at the school, Wright knew that he had bigger aspirations in a much different industry.
“At that point, I thought that was a pretty good deal. Then when I finished my master’s, I went into church music and that’s what I really wanted to do,” Wright said.
Not long after he finished his master’s, he received a call from Dr. Ralph Phelps, the president of Ouachita at the time, who offered him a chance to serve as the choral director and teacher at his alma mater.
“My wife and I started praying about it and we thought it was a good move and I never regretted it after that,” Wright laughed.
During his time at Ouachita, Wright served as the director of the choir, the dean of the school of fine arts and interim vice president for academic affairs. In over 40 years of service, many stories continue to stick out in his mind, but the story of the Ouachita Singers and the crash of Flight 1420 is one that will forever be remembered.
“Of course I knew the family well and I knew Rachel [Fuller]. When I got that information about the crash, it was devastating. As it turned out, she didn’t make it and we went through a period of time where we would have an opportunity to speak through that and it was very difficult for me to get through those times because it touched my heart so much,” Wright said.
“James [Harrison], the guy who worked for me at my house, he was the other kid that died. I had the opportunity to speak at his funeral service and it was an awesome experience but it was really hard because they were kids that I loved,” Wright added.
With memories on his sleeve each year he taught, Wright finds himself in a much different role now. But before he was asked to become interim president, he was first challenged with something else. Following a ten-year retirement from Ouachita and teaching, Wright joined the development office and filled in for Dr. Gary Gerber while Gerber was on sabbatical.
“I was at my home in Little Rock and I was praying and I said ‘God, if there’s something you want me to do, since I’m still in pretty good health, show me’ So, two days later I got a call from Dr. Gerber,” Wright said. “He said he was going to be on sabbatical in the spring of 2013 and asked if I could come teach concert choir for him. And I said, ‘well, I did that for 40 years, I think I probably could.’
So Wright came back to Arkadelphia to do the thing that he loved so much. However, he did it without a companion.
“My wife had cancer and passed away nearly three years ago. We moved to Little Rock a few years back so that she could be closer to her treatment and we were so blessed. The doctor gave her two years and we got almost ten years,” Wright said.
Margaret Wright was a professor of accounting and also worked in the development office.
“Her heart was at Ouachita just like mine,” Wright said.
So as Wright came back to teach at Ouachita, others couldn’t help but see him in other roles as well. When the development office and vice president for development, Terry Peeples, lost an officer in her department, she reached out to Wright to fill the gap.
“I told her I didn’t want to work full-time because I would be teaching, but I would do three days. I started doing both of those for one semester, then I stayed in development after that semester,” Wright said.
Wright takes over the presidency as the 15th in a line dating back to Dr. John Conger. But, since Wright has been at Ouachita, even during his time as a student, he has had the “privilege” of working with six presidents before him—Dr. Phelps, Dr. Donald Seward (also an interim), Dr. Daniel Grant, Dr. Ben M. Elrod, Dr. Andrew Westmoreland and Dr. Rex Horne. If you count himself, he’s been around almost half of the presidents to walk the campus of Ouachita Baptist.
“All of those guys are some great men. I hope that I can keep us between the ruts until we get our next president and I’ll be looking forward to that. But, I promised the committee that I would. When they asked me, I said ‘What else am I going to do,’” Wright said.
As interim president, Wright is required to talk with a lot of different people including students, parents, faculty, administration and donors. But that rarely keeps him from walking the campus some afternoons, enjoying a late-August day in the sun.
“I’m out on campus a lot and that’s just who God made me, I like doing that,”
Wright said. “I made a policy a long time ago when I was a dean that if I wanted to talk to someone, I went to their office because I always felt like they would be more comfortable in that environment than sitting in my office.”
In fact, rarely does Wright have meetings in his office. But, one of the few exceptions to that is with prospective students.
“I had a meeting with the admissions counselors and I told them when they get a student on campus and they have time and I’m here, I want to see them and their parents, because I like to relate to them and enjoy recruiting,” Wright said. “Back when I was a dean, I had already told the faculty that when they have a prospective student on campus, to get them in my office. It was not very far into that process that I had a mother and father tell me in a meeting I had with them that this was the fifth school that they had been to but the first dean that they had talked to.”
So as Dr. Wright continues to use the presidency to make Ouachita a better place, he will continue to wander campus, searching out for people to impact. His spirit, his passion and his love for Ouachita will carry on long after his term as president.
“I believe that my prayer to God brought about Dr. Gerber and Terry Peeples getting me back on campus and into development, which has been so valuable to me and I was here and had a presence here and they decided they needed an interim president and I think God prepared all of that,” Wright said. “So that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing and there’s no doubt in my mind that God impressed me to do this.
