Theodore Lyman Wright, Sr., came to Beloit in 1846. He left his position as headmaster in a boy’s school in Massachusetts to comply with his doctor’s advice, namely, to engage in a new type of occupation because of his health.

In Beloit he and his brother-in-law formed a partnership. Soon he became interested in the papermaking industry. That led him to form a second partnership. He and S.T. Merrill started the first papermaking factory in the Middle West. It was the Rock River Paper Mill. He was very successful in his business investments in Beloit.

He had community interests as well. One of his greatest contributions to the small community was his leadership and interest in the public schools. He helped and led the movement out of which Beloit established a joint school district and built its first high school in 1869. For many years he was President of this joint district school board and also the Superintendent of the high school. In the elementary school level, he was for many year’s clerk of District Number One (East Side District).

Children of T. L. Wright were professor T.L. Wright, the head of the Greek Language Department, Beloit College, Miss Clara Wright, Mrs. O.T. Stiles and Mrs. Bertha Dixon. Wright School was named to honor the senior T. L. Wright.