My Father's Journey, Marshall, Texas

Seventh grade students in Marshall, Texas, worked in coordination with the Texas State Historical Association and National History to create multimedia websites that includes interviews with family, friends, and local residents. The work was supported by Museum on Main Street's Youth Access Grants in 2013-2014. In this project, a student interviews his father, Robert Stewart Wright, a Professor of Music and Director of the Bennett Music Technology Lab at East Texas Baptist University.

Noah (00:00): What is your name?

Robert Stewart Wright (00:02): My name is Robert Stewart Wright Stewart Wright.

Noah (00:05): Is there any particular reason you got that name?

Robert Stewart Wright (00:08): Yeah, Robert Stewart Wright is a family name. I was the fifth generation of Robert Stewart Wrights and my family. The middle names were all different. I was Stuart, my dad was Foster, and my grandfather was Frederick and it goes on back. But Robert Stewart Wright was a common name to all of us.

Noah (00:29): Where did you go to school when you were in Marshall?

Robert Stewart Wright  (00:31): When I was in Marshall, I went to school at Davey Crockett, and that went through sixth grade. And then seventh and eighth grade were junior high, so that was Marshall Junior High, and I went to school there.

Noah (00:44): Where did you go to high school?

Robert Stewart Wright  (00:45): Well, after eighth grade, my father died. One of the reasons we were in Marshall was because my father was teaching music at ETBU. Or back then they called it ETBC, which was East Texas Baptist College. And he died suddenly in 1968. And so my mother decided to go to a school at SMU and we moved to Dallas. And then I went to school and graduated from Highland Park High School there.

Noah (01:20): Were your parents musicians?

Robert Stewart Wright (01:22): Yes. Both of my parents were musicians. And they begged me not to become a musician, but I did it anyway. Yeah, that was it. They said that, "There's no way you'll make any money out of it." They were right about that, but I just felt the need to be a musician anyway, even though they advised me against it.

Noah (02:37): Why did you come back to Marshall?

Robert Stewart Wright (02:39):

I came back to Marshall in 1989, basically in the spring of 1989, to fill in for a professor that had gotten ill. And that teacher was so ill that she couldn't return at all, and so then I just stayed on. They liked me and I stayed on. So, basically, I've been at ETBU since 1989.

Noah (03:06): What have you taught at ETBU?

Robert Stewart Wright (03:06): At ETBU, I've taught a lot of different things. I've taught organ, I've taught piano composition, 20th century music. I've taught theory and counterpoint and things like that.

Noah (03:25): What is your favorite composition you've written?

Robert Stewart Wright (03:28): Oh, that's hard to say. I wrote a piece that I really like, and I enjoy playing with my wife, which is a piece for piano. It's a little piece called Discussion for Two Pianos. And I think that's probably one of my favorite pieces, because we enjoy playing it together.

Asset ID: 2022.32.01
Themes: Family, fathers, growing up, music, composition, 1968, school, teaching, piano, Journey Stories
Date recorded: 2013
Length of recording: 03:50
File Type: Website/Audio
Related traveling exhibition: Journey Stories
Sponsor or affiliated organization: Texas Historical Association in conjunction with National History Day
More information: https://www.marshallnewsmessenger.com/news/journey-stories/article_d2114c08-8e5d-5416-9d4a-d7652498bc08.html