THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 11, 1994 TAG: 9408110540
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MARGARET TALEV, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: KILL DEVIL HILLS LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
On a stormy November day in 1932, 10-year-old Wilkinson ``Wick'' Wright and his brother Milton crouched at the base of the new Wright Brothers Monument to celebrate its dedication.
Their great-uncle Orville stood behind them.
The moment is documented in black-and-white in a photo album that Wick Wright's family perused Wednesday at the Wright Brothers National Memorial.
Wright brought his five children and their spouses and 10 grandchildren to the monument to climb the same winding staircase he'd navigated 62 years before.
At the top, they got a first-time, in-person, aerial glimpse of the spot where the first engine-powered flight made history.
``Look! An airplane's taking off!'' shouted one grandchild as she pointed to the ground from the observation area atop the 61-foot monument.
``For the first time, I guess I'm seeing it all up close, all the stuff I've been hearing about since I was a part of this family,'' said Anne Kline, one of Wick's daughters.
Another daughter, Barbara Cutillo, ``couldn't imagine a better place for a family reunion.'' She said the trip helped her children relate to their grandfather's experience in 1932 because ``he was the same age as they are now.''
Great-nephew of Orville and Wilbur, and grandson of their older brother Lorin, Wright said he organized the trip to show his family what can be accomplished with ingenuity, faith and dedication to a dream. He said he wanted to give them ``some sense of things being done. You can do things.''
Papa, as he is known by his grandchildren, has returned to the monument several times since the 1932 photograph was taken. Although he wasn't yet born when his great-uncles were still flying, he knew Orville and he delighted in his ancestors' history and accomplishments.
Now 72, he lectures around the nation about his great-uncles, and is an organizer of the planned international 100th anniversary celebration of the Wright Brothers' 1903 flight.
Most people haven't a clue about the occupations, accomplishments, dreams or obsessions of their great-great-great uncles. But Barbara Cutillo said her children will ``pass on the legacy.''
``They've been taught so much about it through Papa,'' she said.
Brenden Wright Lane, 12, said he thought what Orville and Wilbur Wright had accomplished was ``really cool - I'm proud.'' He said he'd like to be the first to do something as well, but he hasn't yet decided what.
Maria Sullivan, 11, said, ``Our relatives did something here that was pretty historical.''
And Cameron Cutillo, 12, said the visit to the Wright Brothers National Memorial made her proud of her grandfather as well as his great-uncles.
Some of the other grandchildren, like 4-year-old Samuel Bradbury Wright, were too young to verbalize their feelings. But their eyes bulged as they listened to John Gillikin of the National Park Service present an oral history of the first flight. Gently, they fingered maps and photographs at the indoor exhibit.
Five of them have done class reports on the Wright Brothers, and some have invited their grandfather to speak during show-and-tell time at school.
Wick Wright, his wife, Marian, and most of their children near live Dayton, Ohio, Orville and Wilbur Wright's hometown.
When the Wright Brothers began searching for a location for their first flight around the turn of the century, they realized Dayton was out of the question. The National Weather Service suggested Kitty Hawk, and the rest - for the Wrights, Lanes, Klines, Cutillos and Sullivans - is family history.
Wick Wright does not fly planes. The only pilot in his family is son-in-law Steven Kline, who flies helicopters for the Ohio Army Guard.
Daughter Amanda Wright Lane is frightened of airplanes, haunted by an unpleasant childhood experience.
And son Stephen Wright, a commercial photographer, took flying lessons for a while, but quit when they became ``too expensive, too impractical.'' However, he enjoys repairing bicycles, which is how Orville and Wilbur made a living before they flew airplanes.
Son-in-law Dan Cutillo, who grew up on Long Island, N.Y., said, ``In third grade on the side wall of the classroom we had pictures of great events: electricity, the light bulb, and one of the Wright Brothers.
``I always remembered that for some reason. I wasn't a flyer or anything. It just stuck out as an enormous achievement.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photos by DREW C. WILSON/
Children who are descendants of the Wright Brothers listen Wednesday
to an explanation of the first flight. From left are Brenden Wright
Lane, Michael Sullivan, Iris Wright, Emily Kline, Laura Cutillo and
Cameron Cutillo.
Great-nephew of Orville and Wilbur, Wilkinson "Wick" Wright said he
organized the trip to show his family what can be accomplished with
ingenuity, faith and dedication to a dream.
by CNB