A true friend of Westmount

Jim Wright, the quick-witted, amiable lawyer who served on the local city council from 1991 to 1999, was killed in a freak explosion in his lakeside cottage in the Laurentians. As the various details surrounding this terrible event are gradually made public, we are left to mourn a man who served Westmount in both official and unofficial capacities.

Jim was a familiar figure in Westmount — a tall, lanky, square-jawed gentleman who always had time to stop and chat with everyone from friends and neighbours to former constituents and the editor of the local paper.

In Civic Alert, Don Wedge’s popular Examiner column, the ongoing discussion has lately been on legacies — the permanent mark left on this community by various elected officials over the years. In Jim Wright’s case, his most remarkable legacy is surely his devotion to the Westmount Public Library, especially during his tenure as Library Commissioner in the late 1990s — a role he seemed to cherish. Whenever he spoke about the library, which was fairly often during that period immediately following its dramatic refurbishment, one could readily sense the pride and, yes, genuine love, he felt for that venerable local institution.

Civic duty was ingrained in Jim’s life, in fact in ran in his family. His wife Nancy’s father was Mayor Peter McEntyre, who served at City Hall from 1969 to 1971 and whose name survives to this day in the form of the McEntyre Creative Writing Competition, which he endowed and the Wrights continued to support and promote with all due pride.

Westmount is, by its very nature, rather densely populated by noteworthy citizens whose good deeds merit the naming of some kind of award, plaque or other form of prize in their honour — so much so that it can be difficult to find something appropriate to name after them.

But since Jim Wright definitely falls into that category and was especially devoted to the library, I hope that the Examiner will soon be reporting that perhaps a small section or a special collection in his beloved library will be dedicated to the memory of this valued member and true friend of the Westmount community.