July 25, 2000
WHAT: The Tower at The University of Texas at Austin will be darkened Saturday evening (July 29) in memory of the late Professor Charles Alan Wright, who died July 7. The darkening will be visible after sunset, with a white rim of light at the top and around the Tower observation deck and a dark band in between. Most of the Tower structure, including the clock faces, also will be dark.
WHEN/WHERE: The Tower darkening effect will be visible after sunset on Saturday (July 29, 2000). Earlier in the day, a memorial service for Wright will be held at 2 p.m. in the GoodShepherd Episcopal Church, 2206 Exposition.
BACKGROUND: Wright was a UT Austin law professor and one of the nation's leading authorities on the federal courts and the U.S. Constitution. He was 72 when he died at a local Austin hospital.
In the month prior to his death, Wright had been named one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America by the National Law Journal. Only 10 other professors were on the list. Although officially retired, Wright continued to teach on a halftime basis and held the Charles Alan Wright Chair in Federal Courts at the UT Austin School of Law.
Wright's 54-volume Federal Practice and Procedure is recognized as the leading academic authority of its kind, used by lawyers who practice in the federal courts and often cited in judicial decisions. Since 1993, he had served as president of the law reform institution, the American Law Institute, the first law professor ever to have been selected for this honor.
During his career, Wright argued 13 cases before the United States Supreme Court, winning 11, and many cases in courts of appeals and state supreme courts. He was consultant to counsel in the Watergate Tapes case involving President Richard M. Nixon.
Wright, who began his law-teaching career at the University of Minnesota in 1950, moved to Austin in 1955 and became a member of the UT Austin faculty.