Remembering Frank Wright

The community lost a special person last week with the passing of Frank Wright who was a River Monitor since 2003 and gave selflessly to honor and protect the Yuba River while spreading joy and friendship to others with SYRCL.

Frank was part of the “Site 1 Team” that travelled monthly to the North Yuba River above Downieville to test water quality at one of the watershed’s most distant and pristine sites. Frank also volunteered monthly to calibrate monitoring equipment in the office.  When his walking became unsteady, he discontinued the field monitoring but continued to reliably serve the entire River Monitoring program and brought joy to SYRCL staff and fellow volunteers through his good humor.

See an obituary in the Union.  A celebration of Frank’s life will be on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014. For more information, call Yolanda Bodine at 530-478-0763.

Here are some gathered reflections on the Frank we knew:

 “He was a gem of a man. His monitoring team was always reliable, terrific and they’d do anything for the Yuba!   One of our oldest monitors, age-wise, but youngest in spirit!” -Wendy Thompson

“He was a kind spirit and always had a way to crack a joke and make those around him laugh!”  -Kayle Martin

 “Frank was an incredible and compassionate man with a huge heart. His zest for life brought smiles to anyone who he would chat with. He seemed to really enjoy making others laugh. He was dedicated to be on time, have every piece of equipment out within minutes, and get right to the job.”  -Jen Hemmert

  “Frank was a laid back gentleman.  I miss the conversations that we had while driving back and forth to Site 1.“ -Jerry Dubesa