In Memoriam: Dr. Charles Wright

Editor's note: Dr. Coby Schal, the Blanton J. Whitmire Distinguished Professor at North Carolina State University's Department of Plant Pathology, penned the following tribute to his longtime colleague and friend.

Charlie was the most modest, mild-mannered, stay-in-the background, yet highly accomplished professor, I have known. He savored educating and mentoring students in the science and art of structural pest management, and promoting the professional growth of PMPs. Even before joining NC State as a professor, I was well-aware of Charlie’s philosophy that pest control in and around homes should not rely on broadcast applications of pesticide formulations that were developed for agricultural crop protection. Charlie was greatly influenced by the residential residue analysis of his long-term colleague Ross Leidy and developed the perspective that the ecology of indoor pests and their proximity to humans—especially children—should prescribe safer alternatives. Together with Mr. Whitmire, President of Whitmire Research Laboratories, Charlie documented that targeting the cracks-and-crevices that harbor pests not only reduced the amount of insecticides used, but also their translocation and contamination of other household surfaces. Charlie served as the scientific inspiration for Mr. Whitmire’s ideas and his NC State research program generated empirical evidence for these concepts.

Through his long-term collaboration with Dr. Wright, Mr. Whitmire recognized the importance of research and higher education to his industry and he endowed two professorships in the Entomology Department at NC State. When I arrived at NC State as the inaugural Blanton J. Whitmire Distinguished Professor, Charlie greeted me with kindness and Southern hospitality. He immediately introduced me to his two Masters students, who later completed their PhD with me. He introduced me to leaders of the NC Pest Control Association (most of whom he mentored), and he and Gene Dupree, his long-time research associate, took me to Southeast NC counties to see for myself that indoor pests have not read the “urban entomology” texts—they are quite content infesting rural and agricultural trailer parks in Duplin and Sampson Counties. Charlie and I had very different backgrounds that informed our urban entomology viewpoints. Nevertheless, we connected on so many levels; most importantly, we converged on the idea that indoor pests are harmful and need to be eradicated rather than “managed”, a philosophy that continues to guide my research. Many of his colleagues in urban entomology were unaware of his zeal to right the wrongs of income inequality and institutional poverty. He understood environmental injustice before the term was coined, and understood that insect pests were major contributors to health disparities in low-income rural and urban communities.

Charlie’s legacy lives with the dozens of PMPs he trained and mentored, including some of the leaders of the pest management industry, and with the social consciousness he instilled in his mentees.