Mark Allyn Wright

Mark Allyn Wright, age 63, passed away unexpectedly Thursday, January 30, 2025 from heart disease. He was born in Philadelphia, PA on December 4, 1961, a son of Ralph Thompson Wright and Linda Kelso Wright. 

Mark graduated from Fairview High School in 1980, where he had been active on the debate, cross-country, and track teams as well as Hi-Q. He continued his education at Yale University, graduating in 1984 with a B.A. in History. Mark excelled at Yale and was invited to join the Directed Studies program for the top student scholars. Only his immediate family knew of his academic accomplishments and commitments. Mark was humble and very private.

He grew up in the Protestant faith but explored and appreciated other faiths as well, finding value there, and was quietly spiritual. Mark had a strong faith in God.

Mark had a deep-rooted commitment to his community, his country, those less fortunate, and the environment. Inspired by the first Earth Day, before he was 10, he borrowed a little red wagon to recycle his neighborhood’s newspapers. While at Yale he became a catalyst for on campus recycling and inner-city gardening for the surrounding low-income neighborhood. On campus, Dwight Hall was the center of outreach from the wealthy school to New Haven and where Mark focused his efforts over 4 years, helping to deliver fresh food and a spectrum of services to its citizens. Mark was very generous to local, regional, and national causes having at one extended period in his life lived on one dollar a day, so he could give more money away to the causes in which he believed. 

After college, Mark followed his mother’s path and worked in social services with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Baltimore helping folks access housing, heat, and other life necessities. While there, he continued his work with community gardens. Thereafter, Mark worked for Habitat for Humanity, having been trained in Americus, Georgia and then worked in New Hampshire. While training in Georgia, Mark had the good fortune to have Jimmy Carter as his Sunday school teacher. Mark said he was an excellent teacher who also kindly wrote a note about him to Mark’s 100+ year old Great Grandmother. His interaction with Jimmy Carter had a great influence on his life. Returning home, Mark worked for Community Shelter Services writing grant applications and doing weatherization in the Erie community. He also worked at a crisis call center, an experience that greatly affected his life. In 1991 Mark pivoted and started work in the for-profit world with his career at Reed Manufacturing, an international, 5-generation, family-owned and operated manufacturer of pipe tools and vises. Mark was instrumental in strengthening the company. After various responsibilities ranging from tarring the roof to sales, Mark became co-President and for over a decade focused on manufacturing and engineering. He retired in 2017. 

Mark was always eager to learn and interested in the world - from a fascination with bogs to buying the remaining books of the Erie Library annual sale and reading them over the winter. These reading binges would spur the next adventures Mark would undertake – bringing Stephanie along smiling most of the time. The adventures would range from searching for a natural cranberry bog (for years), exploring Native American Mounds, searching for flint, exploring remnants of canal beds and locks, and appreciating the architecture of the Western Reserve, to name a few. Mark enjoyed tinkering with old tractors and bikes as well as being outdoors. He spent much time canoeing, kayaking, sailing, hiking, and biking. He biked from Erie to New Haven to return to college one year. Mark enjoyed genealogy. He was proud of his family and loved them very much.

Mark also enjoyed a good challenge and had the tenacity to see things through. With skills learned from Habitat for Humanity and Horsepower Farms in Maine, Mark harvested tulip poplar trees from his farm and built his house using the assistance of a portable sawyer, while working at Reed. He also had a very large organic garden and animals ranging from sheep to goats to horses at his farm. He lived his life consistent with his values, which were strongly influenced by his terrific, loving parents, with whom he was close. He believed life should be simple, and sometimes the world frustrated him. His parents worried he had been raised to be too idealistic.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Bob Higby.

He is survived by his wife Stephanie; his brother Scott and his wife Carla Wright Picardo; mother-in-law Jeanette Franz; sister-in-law Amy Lippert; brother-in-law Michael Lippert; and nieces and nephews: Gridley Wright, Emma, Allison, Matthew, and Henry Lippert. He is further survived by his Uncle John C. Kelso III, Aunt Jane Greenberg; Uncle Ross (Dottie) Wright and Aunt Nancy (Richard) Hoey as well as many cousins and his faithful dog Rocco.

Friends are invited to call on the family on Friday Feb, 7 from 4pm until the time of the memorial service at 6pm at Burton Quinn Scott Cremation & Funeral Services, West Ridge, 3801 West 26th St.