“I’ve always felt a responsibility to this town,” Ted Wright says. “It’s taken care of me, so why not take care of it? It’s been very rewarding for me and my family.” These days, Ted spends his time giving town tours of Narragansett on his South County Trolley, but the lifelong resident has devoted himself to the betterment of the town for decades. “I decided a long time ago to run for Town Sergeant,” he says. “At the time it was almost unheard of to run as a democrat. I happened to be at the right place at the right time.” He ran for office after office, working his way through the Town Council, helping the town achieve major wins along the way, like purchasing Wheeler Beach (which was going to become a water park) and keeping the North End Industrial Park (and its taxes, a revenue source for the town) from becoming property of URI. “All of this is done with the help of the town administration,” he says. “But I always thought it was better to do things for my community rather than just submit bills.”
However, it’s never been all political for Ted. Anyone who knows him – which, with a nickname like “Mr. Narragansett,” is pretty much everyone in town – knows that he spends a lot of time doing good things for other people. The Wright Family’s annual community Christmas dinner, a free dinner they host every year at the Narragansett Community Center, is a great example of that. “I had a really good year and said ‘I’m going to take the family to Disney World.’
My wife’s mother and father couldn’t come,” Ted explains. “When we got back we found out they had no place to have Christmas dinner. That’s what started it. There was no place for people to go.” Now, 15 or so members of the Wright family cook and serve dinner for up to 100 people in town. “My daughters cook the turkeys, my sons-in-law are the kitchen men. My grandchildren do the serving – nobody has to get up and do anything.” This upcoming year is going to be the last that it’s completely the family’s responsibility, though. The Lions Club is coming on board to help them. “When you have a family and you watch it grow, you try to steer them in the right direction. For me, it’s worked very well,” he says with pride.
He credits the people around him, and a lot of good fortune, with what he’s accomplished – and is extremely reluctant to take sole credit for any of his achievements. However, it’s hard not to give him that credit, especially for rescuing an old Narragansett Brewery sign from the woods and installing it in the Narragansett Rotary in 1999, making something beautiful out of what was once an overgrown eyesore. “I got it straightened out over the winter in my garage, and I finally got permission from the state to put the sign in the rotary,” Ted says. “A lot of people don’t realize that people chip in an awful lot. All kinds of contractors I had worked with through the years helped me put it together. It’s phenomenal the people that came along.” Now he maintains the rotary and will fly flags every month in commemoration of events – people just have to ask, and he’ll try to make it happen.
The trolley is another thing that happened with good fortune and a good idea. “Ann O’Neill and Angie Panagiotis had the idea there should be some kind of South County tour,” he says. “They coaxed me into looking into a trolley. I figured, well, I’ll do a bit of touring.” Now Ted gives trolley tours of the town, especially to tourists in the summer, and people rent them all the time for weddings. One of them is named the Annie O and Angie.
“I enjoy what I do,” Ted says. “I’ve never considered it working a job. Mostly I put down the groundwork for things and hope they keep going. At 82 years old, you look back and say ‘I’ve had a great time.’ When you look back and see things happening, that’s even better.”
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