• Fraternity brother (Zeta Psi), Best man, and life-long friend of Nelson Merrell Mills.

• Godfather to David William Mills.

• Donald Carlisle Mills named in his honor.

• [excerpts] Donald R. Wright, Pasadena attorney who took his seat as a member of the City Planning Commission this week, is looking forward to the problems of community planning with a great deal of enthusiasm.
Mr. Wright is a native son of a native son. His late father, David L. Wright, was born in California and first came to Pasadena in 1879 when it was no trick at all to know the name of every citizen and his dog.
Later the Wright family engaged in ranching in Fullerton, where Donald was born. They moved back to Pasadena in 1912.
Donald Wright attended Pasadena schools and was graduated from the old Pasadena High School. He obtained his A.B degree at Stanford and his L.L.B. degree at the Harvard Law School.
He started in the practice of law with J. Dean Barrick and later became his partner in the Pasadena firm.
Mr. Wright served four years in the armed forces during the war, entering as a lieutenant in the Air Corps in 1942 and retired in 1946 as a lieutenant colonel and squadron commander. Most of his service was in the intelligence division. He spent two years in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands in charge of agents assigned in counter intelligence.
He attended the Command and General Staff School at Ft. Leavenworth, as well as the Counter Intelligence School at Chicago conducted by the F.B.I.
Mr. Wright lives at 393 South Los Robles Avenue. He is a member of the University Club and serves on the board of trustees of California Junior Republic.4012

• [excerpts] Mr. Wright is a third generation native son of California. His father, David L. Wright, came to Pasadena first in 1878. Mr. Wright is himself virtually a native of Pasadena. He was born in Fullerton, but attended Jefferson, McKinley, Muir Junior High and Pasadena High School before going to Stanford. He received his law degree at Harvard, and is currently working on his master’s degree in law at U.S.C.
He has been practicing law with John Dean Barrick since 1932, working primarily on probate, estate and taxation matters. In conjunction with his law work, he has served as treasurer and first vice president of the Pasadena Bar Association, and as one of the founders of the Legal Aid Society.
Mr. Wright is first vice president of the board of directors of Boys Republic in Chino.4019

• [excerpts] Donald R. Wright, 46-year-old attorney and chairman of the City Planning Commission, was appointed one of Pasadena’s three Municipal Court judges today.
Gov. Earl Warren named Mr. Wright to succeed H. Burton Noble, who was elevated to the Superior Court bench.4020

• [excerpts] Persuasion and tact are the necessary tools for administering the world’s largest court system, says the man who is about to take on that job.
He is Superior Judge Donald R. Wright of Pasadena, who became presiding judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court last week. He succeeded Judge Lloyd S. Nix.
He will assign the 134 judges, the 30 court commissioners and the 15 juvenile court referees for the coming year.
“As a judge among judges, I’m like an equal among equals,” Wright says, “and that is where the persuasion and tact come in.”
In addition, he will set policy, appoint court committees and act as liaison between the courts and the Board of Supervisors and the various bar associations.4013

• [excerpts] Gov. Ronald Reagan has appointed Pasadena Judge Donald R. Wright as the new chief justice of the California Supreme Court.
The new chief justice, 63, was serving with the second appellate district court of appeals.
He was elevated to that post in December, 1968, by Gov. Reagan after serving as a municipal and superior court judge in Los Angeles.
Reagan said that Wright was selected after an exhaustive search throughout the California judicial system.
“Judge Wright has demonstrated an ability to administer California’s massive judicial system. He has demonstrated his ability in a distinguished career as both a lawyer and judge,” Reagan said.4014

• [excerpts] Judicial and legal circles of the state today hailed the appointment of Pasadenan Donald R. Wright as chief justice of the California Supreme Court. Some called him a moderate and some, a conservative, but all described him as widely experienced and an outstanding court administrator.
Appeal Court Justice Wright, appointed Monday by Governor Reagan, declined to accept any philosophical label when he talked with reporters.
The governor declared the appointment of the 63-year-old Wright, to be “one of the most important decisions I shall make as governor,” and said he hoped the court “will now return to a policy of judicial restraint.”
Although he is a Republican, Judge Wright said he last worked actively for the Republican presidential candidate Alf Landon in 1936, and when he was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt, “that ended my political career.”
Reagan said he did not know what Wright’s politics were when he was considering him for the appointment
Judge Wright said he had forbidden friends to propose him for the job, and learned of the impending appointment only last Thursday or Friday when the governor called him.
He and his wife, the former Margaret McLellan [sic] of Seattle, are active socially. He is a member of the Valley Hunt Club, the University Club, the Tournament of Roses Association, the American Legion, Pasadena Rotary, and the Pasadena Presbyterian Church.4015

• [excerpts] Appellate Justice Donald R. Wright of Pasadena, an advocate of “judicial restraint,” was nominated Monday by Gov. Reagan to be chief justice of the California Supreme Court.
At a Sacramento news conference, he declined to describe himself as a “conservative,” saying such terms don’t mean much.
“I am an advocate of judicial restraint,” Wright said, “It is not the function of the courts to legislate. I never thought so.”
Last week the governor’s office called him, said there was not much in the file on him and wondered whether he was a Democrat or a Republican, Wright related.
“I told him,” he laughed, “I very definitely am a Republican and always have been.”4011

• [excerpts] The three member Commission on Judicial Appointments today unanimously approved the appointment of Donald R. Wright of Pasadena as chief justice of the California Supreme Court.4021

• [excerpts] Next Friday, May 1, is Law Day, a fitting day to swear into office as Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court a distinguished Pasadenan, Donald Richard Wright.
The new chief justice feels deeply his roots in Southern California, just as he appears to feel deeply a sense of history and respect for tradition. The Wrights reluctantly plan to sell their comfortable home of 17 years for the move to San Francisco, the State Supreme Court’s headquarters.
Judge Wright’s appointment by Governor Reagan was a surprise, and coming in the midst of the Washington turmoil over President Nixon’s nominations for the U.S. Supreme Court, there was much speculation as to the new justice’s philosophy.
Justice Wright grew up in Pasadena and so did his father and grandfather. There’s an old Victorian house (“where my father grew up”) and a magnolia tree (“my grandfather planted”) still standing near Fair Oaks Avenue and Mountain Street, where the family place was located.
The Wrights will return to Pasadena when they retire; “After all, this is our home.”4022

• [excerpts] Donald R. Wright, was sworn in Friday as California’s 24th chief justice on the outdoor porch of historical Colton Hall, where the state’s first Constitution was drawn up and signed in 1849.
The oath was administered by acting Chief Justice Stanley Mosk.
Wright assumed his place on the bench immediately after the formal swearing-in ceremony and became involved at once, in a pressing societal problem, a welfare case.4016

• [excerpts] Nearly 400 important Pasadenans gathered Monday night at the Huntington-Sheraton Hotel for the 10th annual community service award dinner of the Salvation Army of Pasadena to honor California Chief Justice Donald R. Wright and the work of the army.
Then the audience was treated by the chief justice, not with a report of the Supreme Court work, but with anecdotes of “what happens to a Pasadena boy when he leaves town.”4023

• [excerpts] Pasadena’s Donald Richard Wright who served the California Supreme Court as chief justice during its golden age, died late Thursday morning of heart failure at Pasadena’s Huntington Memorial Hospital. He was 78.
Widely respected both professionally and personally, he had remained active until entering the hospital Feb. 17.
“I think history will judge him as among the most able Supreme Court justices,” said Scott Bice, a friend and dean of the USC Law Center, where Wright had served on the board of councilors for the last 12 years.
Supreme Court Justice Stanley Mosk, the only remaining colleague of Wright’s still on the court, said:
“I have never had more respect for any person than I felt for Donald Wright – as a dear friend, a great jurist and a splendid court administrator. But more importantly, he was a warm, compassionate and caring human being who constantly sought justice for every segment of society.”
The court under Wright helped shape national legal doctrine, expanding liability in favor of people injured in accidents, upholding individual liberties, affirming the separation of powers doctrine, abolishing the death penalty and requiring disclosure of financial contributors to ballot measures.
Wright was also a lot of fun, said former U.S. Secretary of Education Shirley Hufstedler, who with her husband, Seth, has been a longtime friend of Wright and his wife, Margaret.
“He was always good for thoughtful, witty and trenchant conversation on a broad range of subjects,” she said. “His resources went well beyond the law. He was extremely well-read, a man whose breadth of interests and information was extraordinary.”
In a 1977 tribute, Tobriner said of Wright: “I am told that Don Wright was somewhat of a bon vivant as a student...and a drinker of strange concoctions during the days of Prohibition; yet, he graduated cum laude from Stanford...” 4017

• The death of former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Donald Wright marks a milestone in California’s passage through a turbulent era.
The Pasadenan drew stirring eulogies from members of the legal community, which viewed his tenure on the bench with respect and admiration for his courage.
Throughout his career, Wright defied the liberal or conservation label-mongers with his abiding affinity above all for truth and justice. He was a man who worked hard and thought hard about matters of great importance to us all.
His authorship of the landmark People v. Anderson case, which first overturned California’s death penalty law, probably will be remembered most.
But his legacy should reflect a wider concern he had – one that we all have. It is embodied in his favorite courtroom query, which mirrored the way he approached his job, his community, and his fellow man:
“But counsel,” he frequently asked, “would you really want to live in that kind of society?”
Thanks to Donald Wright, a man of conscience, our society is better off.4024

• Pasadena jurist dies
Former California Supreme Court Chief Justice Donald R. Wright of Pasadena died last week at Huntington Memorial Hospital after a heart attack. He was 78. Wright served seven distinguished years on the state’s highest court and authored a number of controversial decisions, most notably a 1972 decision that overturned California’s death penalty. Appointed chief justice by then-Governor Ronald Reagan in 1970, Wright proved an independent jurist and locked horns with Reagan on many issues. He wrote in the court’s anti-death penalty decision that the sentence constituted cruel and unusual punishment and “dehumanizes and degrades all who take part in the process.” Reagan denounced the decision and was supported by the voters in a ballot initiative allowing the death penalty. Once again the Wright Court struck it down as unconstitutional. A third death penalty law was finally passed and is today in effect. Wright authored and supported decisions limiting police surveillance powers, providing equality in education, and rewriting civil suit guidelines. He also opposed the appointment of Reagan crony William Clark to the Supreme Court and stymied Reagan’s attempts to get him off the court so a conservative judge could be appointed before Reagan left office. His resignation in 1977 paved the way for Jerry Brown’s appointed of liberal Chief Justice Rose Bird.4025

• 1910 Census: Placentia, Orange, California. Age 3, b CA. Parents b CA.4026
• 1920 Census: Pasadena, Los Angeles, California. Age 12, b CA. Parents b CA.4027
• 1930 Census: Pasadena, Los Angeles, California. Age 23, b CA. Single. No employment. Parents b CA. Living in parents’ household.4028
• 1940 Census: Pasadena, Los Angeles, California. Age 33, b CA. Single. Attorney, Private Practice. Living with mother and brother at 399 South Los Robles.4029