Welcoming Rodney and Mary Wright

Fortunately for us, Falcons Landing is located near the National Air and Space Museum at the UdvarHazy Center. If it hadn’t been, we may not have been able to welcome new residents Rod and Mary Wright. As a longtime docent at the Center, Rod considered proximity to the center a “must.” Mary was also associated with the Center as librarian but has now retired.

Until they moved here, the Wrights commuted to the museum from Centreville, and before they moved to Centreville, they lived in Annandale. While Virginia has been their home base for many years, they started out in Michigan. They met at Western Michigan University where he was studying biology and she was in education. When they graduated, Rod was commissioned in the Army, they married, and Rod was sent to Ft. Benning, GA. From Ft. Benning, they went to Germany, then to Ft. Lee, VA, where their first son was born, and then to Yuma, AZ. Rod went from Yuma to Vietnam and then back to Ft. Lee, where their second son was born.  

In 1969 Rod received a master’s degree in administration from George Washington University and then, when he went on his second tour to Vietnam, Mary returned to Michigan to go to graduate school, where she received a master’s degree in library science. At that time, her mother decided to enroll also, so Mary and her mother attended school together in Kalamazoo!  

Rod’s next duty station was in Ft. Hood, TX, where, he laughingly said, his mobile unit had one of the first “portable” computers. “Portable,” in those days, was anything but!

In 1972 Rod was the chief of computer operations at the Pentagon.

After 13 years in the Army, Rod left to become the senior advisor to the National Computer Center. He was posted to Saudi Arabia and worked for the U.S. Census.

For more than nine years Rod has been the database administrator for the Air and Space Museum.

Computers, photography, and travel are Rod’s interests. Mary is interested in the Falcons Landing Library. Mary and Rod will probably spend much of their time visiting Maryland, where both sons live. In addition, they have two grandsons, one granddaughter, and three great-grandsons.  

We warmly welcome the Wrights to Falcons Landing