After 50+ years of service in medicine, Fred Wright, MD, professor of medicine (nephrology) and of cellular and molecular physiology, has retired.
“It's been more than 50 years since I came to New Haven. I would say that the spirit is willing, but it's time, and so I can't do it forever, so I feel that I want to have a little time doing something else,” explained Wright.
Born in St. Louis, Mo., Wright says medical school was always part of his plan. “I don't remember exactly the age, but I had a chemistry set in the basement. I had two really influential science teachers in fifth grade and seventh and eighth grade, and it seemed like the subject of choice. In high school, and college, I wasn't deterred by chemistry and physics,” recalled Wright.
While earning his undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan, Wright competed in men’s diving. He continued on to earn his medical degree from the university. Next, he moved to Baltimore, Md. for his internship and residency, which was cut short because he was commissioned into the U.S. Public Health Service to fulfill his draft requirement. From 1965 until 1968, Wright served as a staff investigator in the Laboratory of Kidney and Electrolyte Metabolism at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (then the National Heart Institute). A chance meeting at the NIH with Gerhard Giebisch, MD, who became Sterling Professor and Chair of Cellular and Molecular Physiology at the Yale School of Medicine (YSM), would bring Wright to New Haven to work in Giebisch’s department.
When Peter S. Aronson, MD, C. N. H. Long Professor of Medicine (Nephrology) and Professor of Cellular And Molecular Physiology, arrived as fellow in 1974, he met Wright. “While Fred was not my primary mentor, he was a career mentor for me. When I was first starting out as an independent faculty member, I would give him my papers to read and he would very carefully edit them,” recalled Aronson. “He really had a big impact on my own career, even though I wasn't even his direct trainee, and that just reflected his generosity. So I got to know him at this stage.”
In 1977, Wright earned a dual appointment as associate professor with the Departments of Internal Medicine and Physiology. Shortly after, he moved his lab from Cedar Street in New Haven to the campus of the VA Connecticut Healthcare System (VACHS) in West Haven.
“Having my lab at the VA was an advantage in many ways. A number of fellows who came to the nephrology section or the physiology department, and some graduate students worked in my lab at the VA,” said Wright.
One such fellow was Department of Internal Medicine Chair, Gary V. Désir, MD, Paul B. Beeson Professor of Medicine; and vice provost for Faculty Development and Diversity at Yale University. The duo would work together for many years, including the four years when Désir chaired the VACHS’s Research & Development Committee. “Fred was immensely influential in catalyzing both clinical and basic science research at VA Connecticut. Without his ingenuity and persistence, the building that many VA clinical researchers now call home would not exist,” said Désir.
In 1983, Wright was named as associate chief of staff for research, the position he held until his retirement. For many years, Wright maintained his lab along with his VA leadership position. During this time, his research is recognized for important contributions in three areas of kidney physiology – the feedback mechanism that regulates glomerular filtration; mechanisms that affect urinary potassium excretion; and mechanisms that determine the effects of diuretics on the kidney.
“Fred was really an outstanding investigator and outstanding mentor, and could have had just a wonderfully fantastic career as a kidney physiology scientist, but then he took this turn into research administration, and was so devoted to it, that he ultimately gave up his own personal research to devote a 200% effort,” said Aronson. “If people are successful in research, it brings a certain amount of glory sometimes, but the people that do the work behind the scenes, like research administration, arranging for other people to be successful, sometimes they don't get much recognition. So I think of Fred as really the ultimate academic Eagle Scout, somebody who just does good for its own sake and has dedicated his career in that way to make other people successful. In that sense, he has enabled a huge amount of research to be accomplished beyond what he might have done himself.”
Fred Sanford Gorelick, MD, Henry J. and Joan W. Binder Professor of Medicine (Digestive Diseases) and of Cell Biology; met Wright in 1987 when Gorelick proposed moving his research lab from New Haven to the VACHS West Haven facility.
“I talked to him about the laboratory space, what resources were available, and about putting the initial grant in. And what happened over the years is that as I've put in various grants and renewed them with Fred’s help. I counted the other day, we've been funded for 42 straight years for research. This would not have happened without Fred’s meticulous review of each of my proposals and his insightful advice. His selfless action and sincere concern for those who work under his guidance have been unmatched in my time at Yale. He's a physician, a scientist, a most capable administrator, and an enormously generous academician. It's rare to find those kinds of people; he will be greatly missed,” Gorelick said.
“Fred has been an unsung hero to Yale research, and the reason I feel passionate is because a number of us really built our careers at the VA with Fred. Fred, more than anybody else I dealt with, really emphasized trying to help people through their research, and not put additional barriers in their way. He always tried to find a way that people could accomplish the science that they were trying to do. Irrespective of whether it was basic science, translational work, or health services research, Fred was very egalitarian in terms of his energies and his effort. He has always gone to the plate for his people here,” said Amy Justice, MD, PhD, C.N.H. Long Professor of Medicine (General Medicine) and Professor of Public Health (Health Policy).
Lori Bastian, MD, MPH, professor of medicine (general medicine); section chief, General Internal Medicine, VACHS; and director, Pain Research, Informatics, Multimorbidities, and Education (PRIME) Center, knew of Wright from her time at the Durham, N.C. VA.
“In particular, he's really well-known nationally for chairing the VA Career Development Award Program. He was the chair of the review committee when we all applied for career development awards. What was so striking to me was the first time I met him, which was when I came to interview here, he said, ‘I remember you from your career development award,’ which was 20 years ago,” remembered Bastian. “I just think that speaks to his national reputation, his leadership, and his passion for helping researchers. He goes out of his way to be kind and supportive.”
Bastian considers Wright a mentor, as do so many at VACHS. “He is the person I go to for so many things: grant operations, whether that be budget questions, hiring questions, extending grants. But many people, including myself, also go to him for anything related to human subjects and IRB-related stuff. So he has the answer to all those questions, and he doesn't hesitate to give you a very sound, very experienced answer. The other day I called him and said, ‘Can I ask you a question about my conscience?’ And he said, ‘I love answering questions about conscience,’” said Bastian.
Morris Bell, PhD, ABPP, Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Scientist in Psychiatry; VA RR&D Senior Research Career Scientist, praises Wright’s good will and patience. “Fred’s toleration for the complexities of the system surpasses almost any other person I've met at the VA. I have never seen him display the frustrations he must have felt so often,” he said. “He has so much respect for what everybody potentially has to offer. We live in a hierarchical system, and there are people who hold positions where they are not always respectful to others. Fred has never been that way. I have seen Fred interact with many people. And the first thing you can count on is that he will listen and he will be respectful. So those are characteristics that have made him respected in turn and admired by many of us.”
Justice remarked on how humble Wright is. “He never puts himself forward, but I think that Fred does like to be appreciated. Now, when I am in a room and I say, ‘We wouldn't have this building if it weren't for Fred,’ you get this kind of bright smile on his face. But he never would say that himself, even though it's true,” she said.
Mehmet Sofuoglu, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry; director of VA New England Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC); is acting VACHS associate chief of staff for research and praises Wright’s dedication and mentorship. “He is the first to get to work and the last to leave,” he said. “When I came to the VA 20 years ago, everything I did was reviewed by Fred, every grant, every project I did was reviewed by him, and got his feedback. He helped us all. He is a very strong colleague and mentor. I am in the acting role for what Fred has been doing for the last 39 years. What a difficult thing for me to do, because Fred knew everything, and now people have to face me. There's already three of us are working, try to fill the gap from him, but that was expected,” said Sofuoglu.
Wright’s list of professional honors and service is immense. From 1976 – 1983, he served as the associate editor of the American Journal of Physiology: Renal Fluid and Electrolyte Physiology. He worked as secretary, then chairman of the Renal Section of the American Physiological Society from 1978 – 1982. On a national level, he worked on NIH subcommittees on obstruction and neuromuscular disorders and sodium and hypertension in the 1970s. Since he joined VACHS, he has participated in committees at the state-wide and national levels. He chaired the Research Advisory Group for the Veterans Administration in Washington D.C. from 1984 – 1985. He has been members of the Research Advisory Group; Eligibility Committee, Medical Research; Appeals Committee, Medical Research; Merit Review Council, Medical Research; Director's Planning Council, Medical Research; along with numerous search committees. As part of the VA’s Office of Research and Development, Wright chaired the Career Development Review Committee, Health Services Research from 1998 – 2003.
Aronson recalled a trip to a national nephrology meeting he made with Wright. They would often room together. “At the time, he was an associate editor of one of the main renal physiology journals. And most people, when they're an editor, you assign reviewers for manuscripts, and then you look at the reviews and decide whether to accept or recommend revisions,” recalled Aronson. “But he was just so conscientious that he would review every manuscript in detail himself and not rely entirely on the reviewers. Almost no editor does that. So, as with everything he does, he just does it in the most thorough, conscientious way possible with this passion for selfless service. That's Fred.”
Wright is a bit nervous about his wife of 60 years, Carol, and her reaction to his retirement. “Well, I think she's coming around to the idea that I could be allowed to return to the house,” he joked.
Wright’s retirement was effective February 28, 2022. He was recognized with emeritus status in March.
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