‘He simply wrote the truth.’ Gary Wright, veteran Observer journalist, dies at age 69

Few people ever questioned Gary L. Wright. “I’m always right,” he’d boast. “That’s my name.”

As a journalist, mostly at The Charlotte Observer on the courts beat, he usually was. At a time when falsehoods are plastered on the Internet and cable TV as truth, Wright’s pursuit of accuracy was his hallmark, his sacred duty.

He didn’t much care for flowery words or writing. He cared about getting the story right. He was a master fact-checker, laboring over details until he was sure they were letter-perfect, editing and re-editing – then re-reading word for word one more time. If needed, he’d call back sources at all hours of the night, or up against deadline.

Gary Lee Wright died Wednesday at his south Charlotte home after years of declining health. He was 69.

For more than 35 years he wrote about the biggest trials and crime stories in North Carolina — notching scoop after scoop — and winning the respect of judges, lawyers and colleagues with his unrelenting diligence and blunt honesty.

“Gary was admired by everybody — Superior Court judges, District Court judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers,” said Charlotte defense attorney George Laughrun. “He knew the process. People liked to talk to Gary — and sometimes to their detriment. He was not malicious. He had no agenda. He simply wrote the truth.

“And if Gary wrote it, you knew it was spot on.”

Meticulous work

Wright was born on March 13, 1951, in Germany, the son of U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Lawrence Wright and Italian-born Annamaria Wright Salisbury. He was raised during postings in Germany, France and the United States.

He studied journalism at the University of Kansas and in 1973 left Lawrence with a love for Jayhawks basketball he never lost. Yet beyond college basketball, old movies, Italian soccer, his red Mustang GT and lunches at Charlotte’s Azteca Mexican restaurant, newspapering was Wright’s great love.

After a reporting stint at an Alexandria, Va., newspaper, he was hired for The Observer’s Concord Bureau in 1979. In the early 1980s Wright was assigned to the courts beat, where he worked for three decades.

Observer sports columnist Scott Fowler was new to The Observer in the late 1990s, when he attended a seminar for young reporters. An editor introduced Wright as the featured speaker, noting that he had only five story corrections in 15 years. “So one (correction) every three years, or roughly one every 1,000 days, which, as all journalists know, is ridiculously good,” Fowler wrote in an email.

Former Observer Managing Editor Cheryl Carpenter said she sent other reporters to learn from Wright.

“He had a fact-checking process that he followed with discipline,” Carpenter wrote in an e-mail. “When I told Gary I was going to send error-prone reporters to him, he rolled his eyes and said: ‘I don’t have time for this.’ I asked him to make time. It was important to the Charlotte Observer.”

Gruff, but caring

Wright was an old-school reporter with a bushy mustache and reporter’s notebook always tucked inside his coat pocket.

If he wasn’t at the courthouse, or interviewing sources at his desk, he was at his favorite perch in the parking garage of the old Observer building on South Tryon Street. Typically, a cigarette dangled from his mouth as he marked up copy with a freshly sharpened No. 2 pencil.

He could be gruff, but it didn’t take long to understand that he cared deeply. Wright could also be hard on sources, often entertaining the newsroom as he barked orders during interviews over the phone.

In 2000, former Observer reporter Eric Frazier teamed with Wright to cover the murder trial of former Carolina Panther Rae Carruth. Before the trial, the two met with then-District Attorney Peter Gilchrist and top homicide prosecutor Gentry Caudill. “I thought we’d be going there to beg for any table scrap they might gift us,” Frazier said.

But as soon as the meeting started, Wright pressed Gilchrist for secret case documents. Gilchrist politely refused, but Wright kept hounding him. Caudill grew incredulous, Frazier said. “He looked over at me as if to ask: ‘Who the hell does he think he is?’ I wanted to lift my palms toward the ceiling and say: ‘He’s Gary Wright, man!’ ”

In 2005, Wright and Observer investigative reporter Ames Alexander were researching stories about N.C. judges who ignored the results of alcohol breath tests in drunk driving cases. During an interview with a respected DWI lawyer, Wright grew impatient as the lawyer rambled on about some judges convicting innocent people.

“After about an hour of this, Gary closed his notebook, peered over his glasses and told the lawyer: ‘I’m going to end this interview. And I’m going to come back to you in a few days. In the meantime, I want you to think about all of the STUPID things you’ve said,’ ” Alexander recalled.

The lawyer looked shocked. But after seeing Wright flash his trademark smirk, the two burst into laughter.

Lawyers and judges admired his diligence and fairness.

If Wright needed clarification from a judge, he didn’t hesitate to traipse up to the bench during a lull in the trial. After the courthouse had closed for the day, officials “were known to unlock doors after hours for records Gary needed for a late-breaking story,” former Observer colleague Lisa Hammersly wrote on Facebook.

Wright may have worn a gruff exterior, but he had a soft spot for young reporters breaking into the business.

He became a mentor, “work husband” and friend to former police reporter Melissa Manware Treadaway. “He made hard, sometimes emotional, work fun to do. He would absolutely wear me out, making me triple-check facts with a source four or five times.”

He was loyal, too, to his friends. If he knew you’d hit a rough patch, he’d invite you for an Italian meal from his mother’s recipes or take you to lunch and listen — then tell you what he thought, even if you didn’t want to hear it.

Wright’s stories won many journalism awards. He was a member of the team that won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for reporting on misuse of funds by the PTL television ministry. Eight years later, he was a key member of the team that was a Pulitzer finalist for the Observer’s “Taking Back Our Neighborhoods” series.

Paying respects

As Wright’s condition worsened over the last year, he was cared for by his daughter, Allyson Maria Wright, and her friends Alesha Grant and Matthew Blake. In the final days, as word got out that Wright was gravely ill with heart disease, lawyers, judges and former colleagues made their way to his front door to show their respect and say goodbye.

Three minutes before midnight Wednesday, Wright slipped out quietly like he’d do nightly from the newsroom after all his calls were made, satisfied his work was done – and he’d gotten it all right.

In addition to his daughter, survivors include a brother, Alexander Wright (wife Toni) of Utah, and sisters Gina Wright Hill (husband Kevin) of Salt Lake City, and Linda Wright Pignedoli (husband Dario) of Rome, Italy; and nieces and nephews.

And, of course, Maya, Wright’s faithful dog.

The family asks that donations be made in Gary Wright’s honor to Catering to Cats and Dogs, P.O. Box 43567, Charlotte NC 28215.

A memorial will be planned for a later date.

David Perlmutt is a former Observer reporter.

This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 5:35 PM.