Name tag from 1977

Two students at Dartmouth Middle School, Kenzie Hill and Sophie Keil, showed the board a video that they made about my mother. One of their teachers was a student at Dartmouth when my mother taught there.

Board president Janice Hector, presented my mother with a framed letter which honored her for her 100th birthday and noted that she was Teacher of the Year in 1977.

This was her classroom, Room 601. It is now Room 201.

Marc Poche speaking to the class.

An unidentified distinguished visitor.

John Vaconcellos

January 23, 2017

January 23, 2017

January 23, 2017

Mercury News

Sal Pizarro January 24, 2017 at 1:58 p.m.

TEACHER OF A CENTURY: Retired San Jose teacher Jacqueline Wright has been getting some well-deserved attention since she turned 100 on Jan. 11. Wright was a longtime American history teacher at Dartmouth Junior High, and her son, Robert Wright, said she often joked that she knew so much about the subject because she lived through it.

Indeed, she served overseas during World War II and was among a group of American Red Cross volunteers who were invited to tea at the White House by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1943. She channeled her knowledge and experience to instill a sense of what the U.S. government, history and politics were all about — the good stuff and the bad — during the turbulent decades of the 1960s and ’70s. When she retired in 1977, the Union School District bestowed on her Teacher of the Year honors.

On Monday night, she was again honored by the district’s staff and students at its board meeting. But that probably didn’t top her experience last Thursday, when she returned to Dartmouth to see her old classroom and speak to a couple of classes. Principal Randy Martino had a surprise in store, too.

“As we wheeled her down the corridor, he arranged for the students to exit their classrooms to applaud her,” Robert Wright said. “It must have been a couple hundred students. Quite emotional. Very much like a Hollywood movie.”

Obituary

The wonderful, long life of Jacqueline Wright came to a peaceful end on Sept. 22, 2020. She was 103

At the University of Nebraska Omaha, “Jackie Leffingwell” studied American history and played intramural field hockey. Her style of play was said to make wearing good shin guards highly advised.

While there, she fell in love with and later married a fellow student, John Wright.

When WWII broke out, duty called, and they were forced to separate. John served on a destroyer in the South Pacific and Jacqueline sailed to Australia as an American Red Cross volunteer.

After the war, they settled in Waukegan, Ill. and later moved to California when John accepted a professorship at San Jose State University.

In San Jose, Jacqueline got a job teaching American history at Dartmouth Junior High where she pioneered the use of classroom simulations. Her energy and passion resulted in being named the district’s Teacher of the Year in 1977. After she retired, hardly a day went by when she didn’t express how much she missed the classroom.

In retirement Jacqueline led an active life as a community volunteer, working as a hospice counselor and an English teacher for immigrants.

Throughout her life, Jacqueline was a Yellow Dog Democrat, a friend of Israel, and an avid sports fan.

Jacqueline loved to read and had a special interest in the biographies of the First Ladies, having met Eleanor Roosevelt in Australia during the war and later at the White House during a tea held for selected Red Cross volunteers.

Jacqueline was preceded in death by her husband, John R. Wright and her eldest son, Randall. She is survived by her children, Robert Wright and Rebecca Bianchi, her granddaughters, Kristie Bianchi and Melissa Alchimisti, her grandson, Obadiah Wright, and her great grandson, Leo Jack Alchimisti.

She will be laid to rest in Golden Gate National Cemetery beside her husband’s grave.

Donations in her name may be sent to Dartmouth Home and School Club and The American Red Cross.